>0. /6. /7  . 

'Xv 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

Division .  .V*  ^  ^ 

V, 

V.  £3 

/  / 

i 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2018  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/scientificstudyoOOkits 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  PUBLICATIONS 


Psychological  Monographs 

EDITED  BY 

JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL,  University  of  Chicago 
HOWARD  C,  WARREN,  Princeton  University  (Review) 

JOHN  B.  WATSON,  Johns  Hopkins  University  (/.  of  Exp.  Psychol.) 
SHEPHERD  1.  FRANZ,  Govt.  Hosp.  for  Insane  (Bulletin)  and 
MADISON  BENTLEY,  University  of  Illinois  (Index) 


Volume  XXIII 

1917 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  COMPANY 
PRINCETON,  N.  J. 
and  LANCASTER,  PA. 


Agents:  G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO.,  London  (2  Star, Yard,  Carey  St.,  W.  C.) 
Leipzig  (Koenig  Str.,  371;  Paris  (16  Rue  de  Cond6) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  XXIII 


1.  The  Scientific  Study  of  the  College  Student.  Harry  Dex¬ 

ter  Kitson.  Pp.  8i. 

2.  Whole  vs.  Part  Methods  in  Motor  Learning.  A  Compara¬ 

tive  Study.  Louis  Augustus  Pechstein.  Pp.  8o. 


3.  Yale  Psychological  Studies,  New  Series — volume  ii,  No.  2. 
Edited  by  Rosell  P.  Angier.  Pp.  1 59-331. 


4.  The  Vertical-Horizontal  Illusion.  An  experimental  Study 
of  Meridional  Disparities  in  the  Visual  Field.  Sarah 
Margaret  Ritter.  Pp.  114. 


(This  volume  includes  Monographs  98-101.) 


k> 


I 


Vol.  XXIII 
N).  I 


Whole  No.  S§ 
1917 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  PUBLICATIONS 

THE 

Psychological  Monographs 

EDITED  BY 

JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL,  University  of  Chicago 
HOWARD  C.  WARREN,  Princeton  University  (Review) 

JOHN  B.  WATSON,  Johns  Hopkins  University  (/.  of  Exp.  Psych.) 
SHEPHERD  I.  FRANZ,  Govt.  Hosp.  for  Insane  (Bulletin)  and 
MADISON  BENTLEY,  University  of  Illinois  (Index) 


STUDIES  FROM  THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  LABORA¬ 
TORY  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 


The  Scientific  Study  of  the  College 

Student 

BY  ^ 

HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON,  Ph.D. 

Instructor  in  Psychology,  the  University  of  Chicago. 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  COMPANY 
PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

AND  LANCASTER,  PA. 

Agents:  G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO.,  London  (2  Star  Yard,  Carey  St.,  W.  C.); 
Leipzig  (Koenig  Str.,  37V,  Paris  (16,  Rue  de  Cond6) 


PRINCETON 
UNIVERSITY 
V  PRESS/ 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 


The  opportunity  for  making  this  application  of  psychological 
methods  is  due  to  the  cooperation  of  Professor  Leon  C.  Marshall, 
Dean  of  the  College  of  Commerce  and  Administration  of  The 
University  of  Chicago.  Mention  of  this  fact  is  hardly  necessary 
so  patent  is  his  connection  at  every  point.  To  him  the  author 
owes  more  than  can  publicly  be  acknowledged.  Thanks  are 
specifically  rendered  for  all  the  facilities  which  he  unstintedly 
furnished  for  the  researches  of  the  past  two  years,  but  most  grati¬ 
tude  is  felt  for  his  live  enthusiasm  and  interest  which  have  been 
powerful  incentives  at  every  stage  of  the  work.  At  discourag¬ 
ing  moments,  when  technical  difficulties  seemed  almost  unsur- 
mountable,  his  unshaken  confidence  in  the  possibilities  of  the 
method  and  his  happy  combination  of  the  common-sense  and  the 
scientific  attitudes  gave  inspiration  for  renewed  exertions.  The 
author  feels  highly  honored  in  being  privileged  to  work  with  so 
intrepid  an  educator. 

Thanks  are  gratefully  rendered  to  Miss  Marie  Spalding  of  the 
office  force  of  the  College  of  Commerce  and  Administration  who 
assisted  throughout  the  entire  two  years.  To  her  intelligent  ser¬ 
vice  is  due  much  of  the  reliability  which  can  be  credited  to  the 
results. 

Helpful  criticism  of  some  of  the  tests  was  contributed  by  Dr. 
Stella  B.  Vincent  of  the  Chicago  Normal  College  who  used  the 
series  in  several  schools  for  Kindergarten  Training. 

Grateful  acknowledgment  is  due  to  Dr.  Harvey  A.  Carr  of 
The  University  of  Chicago  for  generous  advice  and  discriminat¬ 
ing  criticism. 

To  Professor  James  R.  Angell,  Head  of  the  Department  of 
Psychology  in  the  university,  who  fostered  the  work  from  its 
inception,  the  author  owes  much.  Those  who  have  had  the 
privilege  of  working  under  Professor  Angell  know  how  much 
stimulus  results  from  his  able  psychological  oversight.  All  this 


IV 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 


was  enjoyed  by  this  research.  But  in  this  case  there  was  added 
the  interest  of  an  educator,  for  Professor  Angell,  by  virtue  of 
his  position  as  Dean  of  the  Faculties  in  the  university  maintained 
keen  interest  in  the  practical  outcome  of  the  study,  and  his  advice 
from  an  educational  point  of  view  has  thus  been  an  additional 
aid. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Ideal  of  Individualized  Instruction, 

CHAPTER  II 

Psychological  Tests  for  College  Students. 

CHAPTER  HI 

Description  and  Discussion  of  Tests. 

CHAPTER  IV 

Psychological  Norms  for  College  Students. 

CHAPTER  V 

Comparison  between  College  Groups. 

CHAPTER  VI 

Training  for  Efficiency  in  College. 

CHAPTER  VH 

Vocational  Guidance  and  the  College  Student. 


CHAPTER  I 


The  Ideal  of  Individualized  Instruction 

“To-day  the  professor’s  energy  is  practically  exhausted  in  his 
study  of  the  subject  which  he  is  to  present  to  the  student.  In 
the  time  that  is  coming  provision  must  be  made,  either  by  the 
regular  instructors  or  by  those  appointed  especially  for  the  pur¬ 
pose,  to  study  in  detail  the  man  or  woman  to  whom  instruction 
is  offered.  Just  as  at  present,  in  many  institutions,  every  stu¬ 
dent  upon  entrance  receives  a  careful  physical  examination,  for 
the  discovery  of  possible  weaknesses,  and  for  the  provision  of 
special  corrective  exercises :  ...  so  in  the  future  it  will  be  a 
regular  function  of  the  college  to  make  a  general  diagnosis  of 
each  student. 

This  will  be  made  ( i )  with  special  reference  to  his  character — 
to  find  out  whether  he  is  responsible,  or  careless,  or  shiftless,  or 
perhaps  vicious;  (2)  with  special  reference  likewise  to  his  intel¬ 
lectual  capacity — to  discover  whether  he  is  unusually  able,  or 
bright,  or  average,  or  slow,  or  dull ;  whether  he  is  industrious,  or 
irregular,  or  lazy;  (3)  with  reference  to  his  special  intellectual 
characteristics — to  learn  whether  he  is  independent  and  original, 
or  one  who  works  largely  along  routine  lines;  whether  his  ideas 
are  flexible  or  easily  diverted  or  rigid ;  whether  he  has  control  of 
his  mind  or  is  given  to  mind-wandering,  and  to  what  extent  he 
has  power  to  overcome  difficulties;  (4)  with  reference  to  his 
special  capacities  and  tastes — to  determine  whether  these  are 
evenly  balanced  or  whether  there  exists  a  marked  preference  for 
some  special  subject;  whether  he  prefers  those  aspects  of  study 
which  are  of  the  book  type  or  those  of  a  mechanical  or  construc¬ 
tive  type  or  those  of  a  laboratory  type;  whether  his  special  gift 
lies  along  lines  of  an  aesthetic  character  or  those  of  a  literary  or 
scientific  or  philosophical  character ;  whether  his  special  aptitude, 
supposing  it  to  be  in  the  literary  field,  lies  in  criticism  or  inter¬ 
pretation  or  creative  work  .  .  .  and  finally,  (5)  with  reference 


2 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


to  the  social  side  of  his  nature — to  judge  whether  he  is  fond  of 
companionship ;  whether  he  is  a  leader  or  follower  among  his  fel¬ 
lows;  whether  he  is  a  man  of  affairs  or  devotes  himself  exclu¬ 
sively  to  his  studies;  the  character  of  his  recreations  the  way  in 
which  he  spends  his  leisure  hours;  whether  he  is  compelled  to 
work  for  self-support  or  for  the  support  of  others.  .  .  . 

Such  a  diagnosis,  when  made,  would  serve  as  the  basis  for  the 
selection  of  studies.  .  .  . 

The  data  thus  gathered  will  determine  the  character  of  the 
advice  given  for  the  student,  and  of  any  punishment  adminis¬ 
tered.  .  .  . 

This  material  likewise,  will  determine  largely  the  career  of 
the  student.  .  .  . 

This  feature  of  twentieth-century  college  education  will 
come  to  be  regarded  as  of  greatest  importance,  and  fifty  years 
hence  will  prevail  as  widely  as  it  is  now  lacking.”^ 

In  the  decade  that  has  elapsed  since  President  Harper  outlined 
the  foregoing  program,  the  demand  has  become  even  more  in¬ 
sistent  that  university  education  be  made  a  matter  for  individual 
adjustment.  College  and  university  authorities  are  awaking  to 
a  realization  of  the  fact  that  they  know  very  little  about  the 
individuals  committed  to  their  care.  The  student  brings  to  the 
institution  a  preparatory  record  consisting  of  grades  which  repre¬ 
sent  roughly  certain  attainments  in  various  academic  lines.  These 
grades,  vague  and  unstandardized,  constitute  practically  the  only 
measure  of  the  student  at  time  of  entrance.  Even  after  four 
years  of  contact  with  the  student,  the  institution  has  gained  lit¬ 
tle  by  way  of  adequate  measures  of  his  ability.  The  records  show 
a  certain  number  of  marks,  which  represent  degrees  of  success  in 
various  branches  of  the  curriculum.  These  markings  usually 
indicate  the  number  of  facts  the  student  has  been  able  to  acquire 
and  retain  until  examination  time.  But  the  particular  aptitudes 
for  professional  and  social  life  which  he  possesses  are  practically 
undetermined.  Moreover  the  institution  lacks  the  power  to 
measure  the  effect  of  its  own  training  upon  the  student.  It  is 

William  Rainey  Harper,  The  Trend  in  Higher  Education,  Univ.  of 
Chicago  Press,  1905.  p.  321  fT. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


3 


generally  believed  that  academic  training  effects  a  general  in¬ 
crease  in  mental  power.  It  is  assumed  that  four  years  of  col¬ 
lege  discipline  have  a  pronouncedly  beneficial  effect  upon  memory 
processes,  reasoning  ability,  habits  of  concentration,  etc.  The 
validity  of  this  assumption  remains  questioned,  however,  because 
such  general  developmental  effect  has  not  been  objectively  deter¬ 
mined  and  subjected  to  measurement. 

The  rapidly  evolving  ideals  of  twentieth-century  education  are 
bringing  to  light  another  responsibility  that  rests  upon  college  and 
university  administrators.  Academic  failures  of  students  must 
be  recognized  as  necessary  subjects  for  investigation.  The  ten¬ 
dency  of  the  past  has  been  to  accept  the  academic  “cripples” 
rather  ungraciously  as  necessary  phenomena  of  the  normal 
curve  of  distribution  or  else  summarily  to  dismiss  them  on  a 
general  charge  of  incompetency.  An  awakening  conscience, 
however,  is  prompting  a  new  attitude  toward  these  academic 
weaklings — a  recognition  of  the  obligation  to  study  the  individual 
in  order  to  determine  the  cause  of  his  deficiencies  and  then  to 
apply  remedial  measures.  So  long  as  an  institution  accepts  and 
retains  a  deficient  student  as  a  matriculant  it  owes  him  not 
merely  low  grades  but  special  efforts  looking  toward  their 
elimination. 

The  needs  of  the  better-than-average  student  are  also  being 
seen  in  a  clearer  light.  Institutions  of  learning  are  coming  to 
see  that  special  capacity  deserves  special  opportunity  and  the 
establishment  of  “honor  courses”  represents  the  recognition  of 
the  obligation  to  adapt  instruction  to  individual  needs. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  at  The  University  of  Chicago  to 
establish  a  method  of  studying  the  student,  and  although  the  aim 
is  imperfectly  realized  the  results  have  shown  the  practicability 
of  the  ideal.  The  innovations  have  been  confined  to  the  College 
of  Commerce  and  Administration  where  for  several  years  Dean 
L.  C.  Marshall  has  been  promoting  a  method  of  individualized 
instruction.  As  at  present  organized,  it  involves  the  following 
features : 

I.  The  enrollment  of  the  college  is  kept  small — about  200 — 
so  that  close  personal  relations  may  be  maintained  between 
student  and  dean. 


4 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


2.  Supervision  of  each  student’s  course  of  study  is  insured 
by  the  regulation  that  the  entire  thirty-six  undergraduate  majors 
must  be  chosen  with  the  approval  of  the  dean. 

3.  The  effort  is  made  to  have  a  long  interview  with  each 
person  that  applies  for  admission  to  the  college.  The  aims  of 
this  interview  are  (a)  to  make  certain  that  the  college  can 
serve  this  individual,  (b)  to  make  certain  that  the  individual 
understands  and  appreciates  the  requirements  of  the  college. 

4.  Upon  admission  each  student  fills  out  (a)  a  life-history 
blank,  (b)  a  personal  record  blank. 

5.  Inquiries  are  sent  to  high  school  teachers  for  information 
concerning  the  student. 

6.  Inquiries  are  sent  to  former  employers  for  information  con¬ 
cerning  the  student. 

7.  A  printed  form  and  a  personal  letter  are  sent  to  parents 
requesting  information  and  cooperation. 

8.  The  gymnasium  director  furnishes  any  significant  facts 
which  appear  in  the  physical  examination. 

9.  At  the  opening  of  the  autumn  quarter  a  series  of  fresh¬ 
men  conferences  are  conducted  by  the  writer  on  the  psychology 
and  physiology  of  study. 

10.  At  the  end  of  each  quarter,  instructors  are  asked  to  turn 
in  suggestions  and  criticisms  concerning  the  students  in  their 
classes. 

11.  In  addition  to  the  close  supervision  over  class-room  work 
which  prevails  in  The  University  of  Chicago  at  large,  advisory 
relations  are  also  maintained  over  the  non-scholastic  activities 
of  the  student.  At  the  opening  of  every  quarter,  each  student 
fills  out  a  blank  indicating  the  activities  and  obligations  he  is 
assuming  over  and  above  the  work  incidental  to  his  studies. 

12.  The  Daily  Maroon  (the  university  newspaper)  is 
watched  and  record  made  in  the  office,  of  the  social  and  athletic 
activities  of  students  in  this  college. 

13.  The  final  feature  of  the  plan  is  a  system  of  psychological 
examinations  carried  on  by  the  writer  throughout  the  past  two 
years. 

It  is  evident  that  the  corner-stone  of  this  plan  is  that  the 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


5 


course  of  each  student  is  given  individual  consideration  by  the 
dean  and  is  chosen  with  reference  to  a  large  mass  of  information 
he  has  on  file.  This  information  is  from  widely  different  sources 
and  covers  the  entire  range  of  the  student’s  activities.  It  is  not 
to  be  expected  that  all  this  information  gives  one  hundred  per¬ 
cent  of  reliability.  Some  of  the  replies  to  the  inquiries,  for 
example,  give  varying  reports.  This  is  to  be  expected.  They  are 
obviously  based  upon  different  degrees  of  acquaintance  and  they 
necessarily  reflect  different  points  of  view.  On  the  whole,  how¬ 
ever,  it  is  found  that  a  fair  degree  of  reliability  can  be  attached 
to  these  reports.  For  example,  if  several  persons  who  are  com¬ 
petent  to  judge,  report  that  a  student  is  inclined  to  inactivity, 
one  has  rather  good  grounds  for  concluding  that  the  information 
is  correct.  Experience  has  proved  these  judgments  reliable  in 
so  many  cases  that  their  helpfulness  is  quite  well  established. 
Samples  of  blanks  are  here  appended  showing  the  manner  in 
which  the  data  are  obtained.  Their  purpose  will  be  clear  with¬ 
out  further  explanation. 

The  mental  aspect  of  the  student  is  a  matter  for  psychological 
investigation.  Therefore  in  1913  a  system  of  psychological 
examinations  was  introduced,  and  the  remainder  of  this  work 
will  consist  of  a  description  of  this  system  and  a  report  of 
results. 


6 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


TLbc  XHniversit^  of  CbicaGo 

Zbc  College  of  Commerce  an5  JlOmlnigtcatlon 


Please  state  your  estimate  of  this  student  and  return  the  card  to  the  Dean  of  the  College  of 
Commerce  and  Administration.  The  information  will  be  considered  confidential.  _  It 
will  be  quite  satisfactory  to  have  this  estimate  stated  as  answers  to  the  following 
questions  or  in  any  other  form  which  you  may  find  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
case. 

Name  of  student _ _ _ _ 

No.  Dept.  Title 


Course _ _ _ 

Taken _  Instructor _ 

I.  In  what  particulars  do  you  consider  this  student  strong? 


(OVER) 


2.  In  what  particulars  do  you  consider  this  student  weak  ? 


3.  Have  you  any  other  information  or  suggestions  growing  out  of  your  experience  with  this 
student  which  will  be  helpful  in  shaping  his  curriculum  ? 


(OVER) 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


7 


Ubc  of  Cbicago 

Sbe  College  ot  dommerce  and  Hbministcatlon 


This  card  is  designed  to  indicate  some  of  the  qualities  more  frequently 
commented  upon.  It  is  not  expected,  of  course,  that  information  will  be 
given  upon  all  points  mentioned. 

Ability  to  grasp  general  principles.  Ability  to  master  details.  Ability 
to  express  thoughts.  Alertness,  Keenness,  Thoroughness,  System,  Open- 
mindedness,  Initiative,  Judgment,  Reliability,  Industry,  Self-reliance^ 
Regard  for  duty.  Moral  influence  among  fellows.  Poise,  Manner,  Ability  to 
handle  people.  Fondness  for  sports.  Interest  in  people.  Outlook  on  life. 
Popularity. 


8 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITS  ON 


In  what  student  activities  do  you  expect  to  engage  this  quarter  ? 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


9 


Cbe  Tnntvcrsits  ot  Cbtcaao  PERSONAL  RECORD 

Obe  Colleae  of  Commetce  anb  nomlniattatlon  student  will  please  fill  this  blank  in  his  own  handwriting 

^  AOOITIONAl  INrOAMATION  ON  ANY  Or  THC  POINTS  MAY  SC  CIVCN  ON  THE  BACK  Or  THE  SHECT 

Date _ 

Date  and  place  of  birth  -  -  Name  . 

Name  of  parent 

or  guardian -  Permanent  addrpjvs.  ,  _  _ 


Business  of  parent 
or  giiart^ian 

Businesses  owned  by  near  relatives; 


NAME  OP  BUSINESS  fOiL 

PLACE 

KDro  OP  BUSINESS 

NAME  OF  RELATIVE 

Names  and  addresses  of  high-school  teachers  who  know  you  best.  (Advanced  standing  students  may  use  names  of  college  teachers.) 


NAME 

PRESENT  ADDRESS 

Business  or  professional  experience: 


YEAR 

WHAT 

PAY 

NAME  OP  EMPLOYER 

ADDRESS  OP  EMPLOYER 

Names  and  addresses  of  other  persons  who  know  you  best: 


NAME 

PRESENT  ADDRESS 

Extent  of  self-support 

Before  coming  to  During  college  year _ _ _ Summer  vacations. 


TTAlght  _ _ W»;g>it  _  -  Hnw  gpftrp  Hmp  ?  _ _ 

Health  - -  - 

What  extra  reading? _ 

Married  or  single?  Family  if  marriffd  -  - -  -  _._■■■  ■  .  ■■  ■ 

Tobacco? _ In  what  fnrm?  Ever  do  any  public  speaking? _ 

Drink?  - -  - 

Out-of-door  _  Church  affiliations _ _ _ 

Favorite  aTrnm^Tn^nt<;  .  ■  _  _  Preparing  for  what;  As  definitely  as  you  know  now. 


DO  NOT  WRITE  BELOW  THIS  LINE 


CONFERENCE  IMPRESSIONS 


nf  <>TprP»gmn  -  - -  Voice _ 

rirpgA  -  _  Articulation _ 

Figure — slim,  medium,  thick-set,  fat,  straight,  crooked,  bent. 


Interest  in  people. 


Outlook  on  life. 


Manner  and  pose — graceful  refined,  vigorous,  courteous,  enthusiastic, 
winning,  riow,  quick,  assertive,  conceited,  vivacious,  taciturn, 

sleepy _ 


In  what  respects  inferior  to  fellows. 


Conversational  ability 


In  what  respects  superior  to  fellows. 


10 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 
The  College  of  Commerce  and  Administration 
CONFIDENTIAL 

_ ^has  applied  for  admission  to  the  College 

of  Commerce  and  Administration.  Inasmuch  as  this  college  aims  to  prepare  students 
for  actual  business  and  professional  service,  it  is  essential  for  the  Dean  of  the 
College  to  have  a  complete  record  of  each  student’s  previoxis  business  or  profes  - 
sional  experience.  We  should  accordingly  appreciate  your  estimate  of  the  quali¬ 
ties  of  the  person  mentioned  above.  It  will  be  quite  satisfactory  to  have  this 
estimate  stated  as  answers  to  some  of  the  following  questions  or  in  any  other  form 
which  you  may  find  better  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  case. 

1.  In  what  qualities  do  you  consider  him  superior  to  his  fellows?-,  ,  ,  .  — 


2.  In  what  qualities  do  you  consider  him  inferior  to  his  fellows?. 


3.  Can  one  depend  upon  him? 


4,  Is  he  industrious? 


5.  Is  he  able  to  tale  correction  properly? 


6,  Is  his  personality  pleasing? 


7.  Do  you  know  of  any  bad  habits  he  possesses?. 


8.  Have  you  any  other  information  or  suggestions  growing  out  of  your  experience 
with  this  student  which  will  be  helpful  in  shaping  his  curriculum?  - 


Name  of  person  who  fills  out  the  blank 
Official  Position  _ 


The  bajck  of  the  sheet  may  be  used  for  additional  information. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


II 


Zbc  ‘Univcrstti?  of  Cbicago 

Cbe  College  of  Commerce  and  AOmlnlettation 

SCCRKTARIAL  WORK 
COMMCRCIAU  TEACHINO 

PHILANTHROPIC  ecRvice 


Trainino  roR 

PUBLIC. SERVICE 
BUBINCSS  SERVICE 


has  appb'ed  for  admission  to  the  College  of  Commerce  and 
Administration.  In  this  college,  an  individualized  curriculum  is  assigned  each  student,  the  courses  varying 
according  to  the  past  training,  present  capacities  and  contemplated  occupation  of  the  student.  Obviously,  accurate 
knowledge  concerning  the  student  is  essential  to  the  success  of  such  a  plan.  We  should  accordingly  appreciate 
your  estimate  of  the  qualities  of  the  person  mentioned  above.  It  will  be  quite  satisfactory  to  have  this  estimate 
stated  as  answers  to  some  of  the  following  questions  or  in  any  other  form  which  you  may  find  better  suited  to  the 
needs  of  the  case. 

t.  In  what  particulars  is  this  student  strong  scholastically  ? _ 


2.  In  what  particulars  is  this  student  weak  scholastically  ?, 


3.  In  what  qualities  do  you  consider  him  superior  to  his  fellows?. 


4.  In  what  qualities  do  you  consider  him  inferior  to  his  fellows  ?. 


S-  Have  you  any  other  information  or  suggestions  growing  out  of  your  experience  with  this  student  which 
will  be  helpful  in  shaping  his  curriculum  ? _ 


Name  of  person  who  fills  out  the  blank _ 

Official  position _ 

The  back  of  the  sheet  may  be  used  for  additional  information. 


12 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


Zbc  TUntversttg  of  Cbicago 

TBAININO  ■ 

PUBLIC  8EBVICI  Zbc  CoWcdc  o(  Commetcc  anO  HDmlntfltratton 

BUStNEdS  BERVICt 
SECRETARIAL  WORK 
COMMERCIAL  TEACHINO 
RHILANTHRORIC  SERVICE 


In  the  space  below  please  submit  in  typewritten  form  a  200»  to  250-word  “life  history."  Make  it  clear-cut,  concise,  and  business-like.  Make  i 
of  such  a  character  that  the  person  who  reads  it  will  have  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  your  life  background.  This  will  cause  you  to  include  statements  of  dat 
and  place  of  birth,  home  influences,  education,  travels,  ambitions  for  the  future,  and  any  other  items  which  have  been  significant  in  your  case. 


CHAPTER  II 


Psychological  Tests  for  College  Students 

The  use  of  psychological  tests  with  college  students  is  not  new 
as  the  abundant  literature  upon  Freshman  tests  bears  witness.^ 
The  feature  distinguishing  the  present  application,  however,  is 
that  while  previous  investigations  have  been  primarily  devoted  to 
the  study  of  tests,  and  rightly  too,  the  present  investigation  had 
for  its  object  primarily  the  student  and  his  immediate  relation  to 
the  university.  In  this  case  the  tests  were  only  the  instrument — 
the  student,  the  goal.  The  objection  is  sometimes  raised  that  the 
status  of  mental  tests  is  so  undecided  that  one  is  not  warranted 
in  subjecting  them  to  the  arduous  strain  of  practical  application 
until  further  development  is  reached.  To  await  perfection,  how¬ 
ever,  is  obviously  impossible;  furthermore,  one  dare  not  say  that 
the  patient  work  of  past  investigators  has  been  for  naught. 
Surely  something  has  been  gained;  some  difficulties  have  been 
overcome;  some  refinements  of  technique  have  been  brought 
about;  some  pitfalls  have  been  exposed.  True,  many  theoretical 
problems  remain  unsolved,  and  in  an  application  of  this  kind  one 
encounters  them  at  every  turn.  Still  it  seems  wise  to  slur  some 
of  them  for  the  sake  of  the  goal,  and  while  frankly  admitting 
the  tentative  and  incomplete  nature  of  the  results  one  may  still 
ascribe  some  reliability  to  them.  One  may  also  point  to  the  fact, 
now  almost  truistic,  that  theoretical  psychology  gains  much 
from  these  early  applications  of  psychological  method  to  prac¬ 
tical  situations,  and  there  is  reason  to  hope  that  serious  efforts 
to  approach  the  actual  problems  of  university  administration  by 
such  means  will  serve  to  focus  more  attention  upon  mental  tests 
and  thereby  further  their  development.  In  spite  of  imperfec¬ 
tions,  then,  the  research  was  undertaken  with  the  conviction  that 

2  For  history  of  Freshman  tests  see  Mary  T.  Whitely.  An  Empirical 
Study  of  Certain  Tests  for  Individual  Differences.  Archives  of  Psychology. 
No.  19,  New  York.  August,  1911.  pp.  1-13. 


14 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


psychological  methods  offer  a  mode  of  approach  to  some  of  the 
problems  of  university  administration  and  a  two-year  trial  has 
shown  the  hope  to  be  justified.  It  is  easily  understood  that  in 
such  work  as  this,  the  complete  demonstration  of  results  demands 
long  and  thorough  trials  by  many  workers,  under  various  condi¬ 
tions.  Therefore  the  claims  of  the  present  investigation  must 
rest  largely  upon  questions  of  methodology.  It  is  in  this  direc¬ 
tion  that  progress  must  first  be  made.  The  undertaking  here 
reported  was  the  trial  of  a  method,  and  any  claims  for  the  psy¬ 
chological  data  presented  are  secondary  to  the  claims  adduced  in 
favor  of  the  method.  The  hypothesis  adopted  was  that  psy¬ 
chological  measurements  are  helpful  in  making  a  scientific  study 
of  the  student,  but  that  when  they  are  to  be  used  for  purposes  of 
interpreting  or  controlling  everyday  activities,  they  must  be 
accompanied  by  other  facts  of  interpretative  value.  So  in  the 
present  work,  the  usefulness  of  the  tests  is  to  be  regarded  as 
conditioned  upon  the  other  means  provided  for  studying  the 
student. 

The  general  plan  of  the  psychological  examinations  was  to 
devise  a  system  for  measuring  the  mental  capacity  of  college 
students  in  order  to  guide  their  college  work.  Secondary  aims 
included  that  of  measuring  mental  ability  from  time  to  time 
throughout  the  student’s  progress  in  order  to  determine  the 
effect  of  college  training.  The  way  also  seemed  opened  for 
comparing  various  groups  of  students  in  order  to  observe  the 
differences  among  groups.  The  clinical  aspect  of  the  work  also 
presented  opportunity  for  giving  individual  aid  to  students  in 
forming  habits  of  study.  Each  of  these  phases  will  be  discussed 
in  later  chapters. 

Briefly  stated,  the  plan  was  to  choose  from  the  large  array  of 
tests  available,  those  that  seemed  most  likely  to  be  of  service 
for  diagnostic  purposes.  Stern®  states  the  requisites  of  such 
tests  as  follows :  “three  things  are  evident :  first, 

series  of  tests  must  be  arranged  that  will  set  in  play  the  various 
constituent  functions  of  intelligence;  secondly,  for  this  purpose 

3  W.  Stern,  Psychological  Methods  of  Testing  Intelligence,  tr.  Whipple, 
Warwick  and  York,  Baltimore,  1914.  p.  22. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  15 


there  must  be  a  wise  selection  of  tests;  out  of  the  immense  num¬ 
ber  of  possible  tests  only  those  should  be  chosen  that  afford  a 
decided  and  a  reliable  symptomatic  value,  general  applicability, 
and  possibility  of  objective  evaluation;  thirdly,  there  must  be 
created  a  system  by  means  of  which  the  several  particular  results 
of  the  testing  can  be  united  into  one  resultant  value,  i.e.,  a  value 
that  shows  the  grade  of  intelligence  of  the  subject  objectively  in 
an  inclusive  formula  in  which  performances  of  different  degrees 
of  value  shall  in  some  way  be  compensated.” 

In  attempting  to  arrange  a  workable  series  of  tests  it  is  found 
that  there  is  a  deplorable  diversity  of  opinion  and  practice  re¬ 
garding  particular  tests,  and  a  wide  variation  in  manner  of 
administering  them.  A  further  obstacle  is  the  paucity  of  corre¬ 
lations  that  have  been  shown  between  specific  tests  and  everyday 
activities.  The  ideal  method  of  selecting  tests  to  be  used  for 
diagnosing  mental  ability  is  to  try  out  a  large  number  of  tests 
and  to  correlate  results  with  a  great  variety  of  activities.  The 
tests  having  the  highest  degree  of  correlation  with  such  every¬ 
day  activities  would  then  be  most  reliable  for  diagnostic  pur¬ 
poses.  Such  a  method  of  selection  is  obviously  beyond  the  reach 
of  one  investigator.  Lacking  the  power  to  show  such  rigid  cor¬ 
relations,  however,  there  are  other  criteria  that  may  be  employed. 
First,  it  is  possible  to  make  an  a  priori  selection  on  the  basis  of 
methodological  fitness.  The  form  in  which  a  test  shall  be  given 
may  be  determined  to  some  extent  by  the  experience  of  other  in¬ 
vestigators.  In  memory  tests,  in  tests  involving  perceptual  activi¬ 
ties,  in  association  tests,  considerable  work  has  been  done,  and 
the  technique  has  been  partially  standardized.  Care  was  taken 
in  the  present  selection,  to  follow  these  standardized  modes  of 
procedure  so  far  as  possible.  It  was  not  possible  to  do  this 
completely  inasmuch  as  several  complex  situations  were  desired 
that  required  specially  devised  tests.  Still  the  standardized  tests 
were  mostly  used  as  will  be  observed  by  one  familiar  with  the 
literature. 

Another  consideration  that  modifies  the  selection  of  tests  for 
such  a  series  is  economy  of  time  and  effort.  If  psychological 
tests  are  to  become  generally  useful  in  college  and  university 
administration  they  must  be  handled  economically.  This  makes 


i6  HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 

group  work  desirable,  so  far  as  possible,  and  tests  must  be 
chosen  that  can  be  so  adapted.  In  the  series  about  to  be  described 
about  half  of  the  tests  were  given  by  group.  Some  of  the  other 
tests  could  easily  be  arranged  for  group  administration.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  writer,  however,  some  tests  should  be  given 
individually.  Satisfactory  diagnosis  demands  some  personal 
contact  with  the  student,  and  a  period  of  time  spent  in  the  lab¬ 
oratory  is  of  considerable  value  in  enabling  the  psychologist  to 
study  the  characteristics  of  the  student  at  close  range.  The 
necessity  for  economy  of  time  and  effort  resulted  in  the  omission 
from  the  series  of  any  extended  learning  tests.  This  is  per¬ 
haps,  unfortunate,  but  experience  has  shown  that  it  is  imprac¬ 
ticable  to  commandeer  the  time  of  a  large  number  of  university 
students  for  more  than  three  periods  throughout  the  year. 

It  is  also  desirable,  in  choosing  tests,  to  avoid  those  that 
may  be  seriously  affected  by  practice.  Furthermore,  if  the  tests 
are  to  be  given  to  the  same  students  year  after  year,  they  should 
be  of  such  a  nature  that  memories  held  over  from  year  to  year 
will  not  be  of  assistance. 

On  the  symptomatic  side,  much  room  for  choice  also  exists  on 
a  priori  grounds.  It  is  certainly  possible  to  select  tests  that  call 
for  a  variety  of  mental  activities.  There  exist  a  number  of  good 
tests  for  memory  ability;  others  furnish  means  for  measuring 
associative  activities ;  almost  all  tests  that  are  tests  of  intelligence 
demand  a  high  degree  of  attention.  A  complete  inventory  of  the 
mind  is  out  of  the  question,  nevertheless  it  is  possible  to  select 
good  tests  for  measuring  fundamental  psychical  activities,  and  the 
net  result  will  be  an  insight  into  the  general  capacity.  Every 
test  employs  the  whole  mind,  and  the  reaction  to  each  one  will 
measure  the  activity  of  the  mind  in  one  of  its  modes.  Of  course 
the  modes  are  not  all  equal  in  development,  but  the  qualitative 
disparities  can  be  disregarded  by  the  use  of  a  kind  of  compensa¬ 
tion  mechanism.  In  the  light  of  some  of  the  recent  investiga¬ 
tions  in  the  field  of  mental  tests,  there  is  experimental  evidence 
for  the  selection  of  certain  tests  over  others.  Simpson,^  after 
an  intensive  study  of  a  variety  of  tests  recommends  the  testing 

^  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  Mental  Abilities,  New  York,  1912.  p.  no. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  17 


especially  of  the  following  abilities  in  the  relative  order  stated, 
“(a)  selective  thinking,  (b)  memory  and  association,  (c)  quick¬ 
ness  and  accuracy  of  perception,  (d)  motor  control,  (e)  sensory 
discrimination.”  In  the  present  collection  of  tests,  though  no 
attempt  was  made  to  classify  rigidly,  still  the  functions  employed 
most  actively  are  probably  selective  thinking,  memory,  speed  of 
association  and  quickness  of  perception. 

Chronology  of  Tests  and  Description  of  Subjects 
After  a  comprehensive  survey  of  mental  tests  with  the  above 
considerations  in  mind,  twelve  were  chosen  for  the  first  year’s 
work.  Manipulation  of  the  data  from  these  served  to  augment 
the  number  of  measures  to  sixteen.  Only  the  names  of  the  tests 
will  be  given  here;  full  description  will  follow  in  Chapter  III. 

1.  Number-checking. 

2.  Memory  for  Numbers  Heard. 

3.  Memory  for  Objects  Seen. 

4.  Memory  for  Logical  Material,  Heard. 

5.  Secondary  Memory  for  same. 

6.  Immediate  Memory  for  Logical  Material,  Seen. 

7.  Secondary  Memory  for  same. 

8.  Loss  in  Logical  Material  Heard. 

9.  Loss  in  Logical  Material  Seen. 

10.  Opposites  Test. 

11.  Constant  Increment  Test. 

12.  Hard  Directions  Test,  Printed. 

13.  Directions  Test,  Oral. 

14.  Word-building  Test. 

15.  Sentence-building  Test. 

16.  Business  Ingenuity  Test. 

On  February  20,  1914,  the  first  group  of  students  was  exam¬ 
ined  with  tests  numbered  i,  2,  4,  6,  14  and  15,  given  in  the  above 
order.  Two  weeks  later  the  group  was  called  together  again 
and  tests  numbered  5,  7  and  16  were  given.  Both  group  exam¬ 
inations  took  place  in  the  morning  and  required  one  and  one-half 
hours  and  one-half  hour  respectively.  The  rest  of  the  tests  were 
given  individually  at  the  psychological  laboratory.  They  extended 
over  a  period  of  time  from  February  23  to  March  17,  1914.  They 
were  given  in  the  order  3,  10,  ii,  12  and  13,  and  required  about 
twenty  minutes. 


i8 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


This  first  group  of  students  numbered  seventy-seven.  It  con¬ 
sisted  of  all  Freshmen  in  the  college  and  some  others  whom  the 
dean  wished  examined.  The  figures  here  presented,  however, 
are  not  compiled  from  the  work  of  this  entire  group.  In  estab¬ 
lishing  norms  for  the  series,  it  was  desired  to  use  only  those 
records  which  were  complete — that  is,  which  contained  a  score 
for  every  test.  This  eliminated  some  records,  since  unavoidable 
absences  and  laboratory  accidents  occurred.  Other  records  were 
eliminated  because  of  language  difficulty  resulting  from  foreign 
birth  or  speech  defect.  As  is  often  the  case,  there  were  also  a 
few  who  misunderstood  directions.  Such  circumstances  reduced 
the  number  of  usable  records  to  forty.  These  forty  students 
were  classified  academically  as  follows : 


Freshmen 

32 

or 

80% 

Sophomores 

6 

or 

19% 

Juniors 

2 

or 

1% 

Thirty-one  were  men  and  nine,  women.  The  average  age  Octo¬ 
ber,  1913,  was  19.9.  The  norms  which  are  to  be  presented, 
are  thus  seen  to  be  not  entirely  Freshmen.  This  will  not 
hinder  the  computation  of  Freshman  norms,  however,  as 
in  all  cases  where  comparisons  are  shown,  the  subjects  are 
grouped  academically.  The  results  secured  with  this  mixed 
group  are  employed  only  in  determining  relationships  among  the 
tests.  This  procedure  seemed  justified  inasmuch  as  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  establish  norms  as  soon  as  possible  in  order  to  obtain  a 
working  basis  for  diagnosis,  and  it  seemed  wise  to  retain  as  large 
a  number  of  records  as  possible  in  order  to  give  greater  relia¬ 
bility  to  the  averages.  Moreover  for  purposes  of  gauging  the 
value  of  the  tests  as  a  series  the  class  of  subjects  used  is  of  little 
account. 

It  should  be  pointed  out  that  the  confinement  of  this  study  to 
the  College  of  Commerce  and  Administration  resulted  in  the  use 
of  a  selected  group  of  students.  In  the  first  place  these  students 
entered  the  university  with  a  high-school  average  grade  better 
than  80%  (according  to  the  ruling  of  the  university).  They 
are  further  selected  in  that  they  have  similar  vocational  aims. 
The  college  offers  preparation  for  “careers  in  the  practical  pro- 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  19 


fessions  or  the  various  branches  of  business,  charitable  and 
philanthropic  service.”  These  considerations  undoubtedly  affect 
the  norms  slightly  and  they  were  certainly  influential  in  deter¬ 
mining  the  nature  of  some  of  the  tests. 

The  1914  Freshmen  were  first  examined  on  November  9  of 
that  year.  Forty  complete  records  were  secured  from  this  group. 
Exactly  the  same  tests  were  employed  as  were  used  with  the 
previous  group.  The  group  was  called  together  again  on  Novem¬ 
ber  24,  1914,  and  tested  for  secondary  memory  as  described 
above.  Individual  tests  were  given  during  the  interim. 

The  statistical  side  of  this  investigation  resolves  itself  into 
several  problems.  Therefore  the  figures  will  be  presented  from 
several  points  of  view.  The  first  task  is  to  make  an  evaluation 
of  this  particular  series  of  tests  as  a  series.  This  will  be  assayed 
in  Chapter  IV.  Chapter  III  will  be  devoted  to  a  description  of 
the  tests. 


CHAPTER  III 

Description  and  Discussion  of  Tests 

Inasmuch  as  this  investigation  aimed  primarily  to  make  a  study 
of  the  student,  not  of  the  tests,  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  give  an 
exhaustive  critique  of  each  test.  This  has  already  been  done  for 
some  of  the  tests  by  previous  investigators  and  standardization 
has  already  been  partially  accomplished.  As  arranged  in  this 
series,  however,  the  tests  have  not  been  previously  used,  there¬ 
fore  they  require  some  examination  in  order  to  ascertain  their 
practical  diagnostic  value  as  a  whole.  The  tests  will  be  described 
in  detail  and  the  discussion  will  be  made  as  full  as  circumstances 
permit. 

All  tests  were  given  in  the  morning.  All  were  given  by  the 
writer.  When  tests  were  given  individually  an  assistant  was 
present  to  record  results  and  the  same  assistant  served  during 
both  years.  Before  the  tests  were  cast  in  final  form  they  were 
used  with  an  experimental  group  consisting  of  twelve  students 
in  psychology.  This  gave  opportunity  for  the  elimination  of  un¬ 
desirable  features  and  also  served  to  give  the  experimenter  fa¬ 
cility  in  handling  the  tests. 

The  total  series  required  about  two  and  one-half  hours’  work 
from  each  student,  the  time  being  divided  into  three  periods; 
the  first  group  test  required  one  and  one-half  hours,  the  second 
group  test,  one-half  hour  and  the  individual  test,  twenty  or  thirty 
minutes.  Tests  designated  g  were  given  by  group;  those  marked 
i  were  given  individually.  The  latter  were  given  in  the  psycho¬ 
logical  laboratory,  the  former,  in  a  large,  well-lighted  recitation 
room.  The  students  were  seated  in  alternate  seats  and  were 
provided  with  pencils.  The  following  remarks  were  made  by 
way  of  introduction  to  the  tests : 

“We  shall  devote  the  next  hour  and  a  half  to  a  series  of  psychological 
tests.  You  -will  be  excused  from  your  next  class  if  you  have  one. 

“I  wish  to  quiet  any  fears  you  may  entertain  about  these  tests,  by  assuring 
you  that  there  is  nothing  mysterious  or  occult  about  them.  They  are  simply 
tasks  such  as  you  perform  every  day,  involving  ordinary  feats  of  memory, 
reasoning  and  attention.  The  distinguishing  feature  is  that  exactly  the  same 
task  is  set  for  each  person  and  the  objective  conditions  are  the  same  for 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  21 


every  one.  I  wish  to  obtain  as  true  a  measure  as  possible  of  your  mental 
ability,  so  ask  that  you  put  forth  your  maximum  effort. 

“The  results  will  not  give  a  ‘map’  of  your  mind,  neither  will  they  tell 
your  fortune  as  a  slip  from  a  nickel-in-the-slot  machine.  But  we  hope  to 
obtain  some  facts  which  will  assist  in  planning  your  course  through  the 
university. 

“Remember,  these  are  simply  common,  everyday  tasks,  to  be  performed 
under  experimental  conditions,  and  your  only  concern  is  to  give  them  your 
entire  attention  and  most  conscientious  effort.” 

Care  was  taken  to  avoid  interruption  during  the  tests. 

Test  No.  I.  Number-checking®^ 

Materials :  Forms  like  sample  laid  face  downward  upon  the 
desks.® 

Directions ;  “On  the  reverse  side  of  the  paper  before  you  are  printed  the 
ten  Arabic  numerals  arranged  in  rows  like  this  (showing  sample).  When  I 
give  the  signal  you  are  to  begin  at  the  first  line  and  go  across  the  paper, 
crossing  out  all  the  sixes.  Work  as  fast  as  possible  for  I  wish  to  see  how 
rapidly  your  mind  can  act;  only  do  not  miss  any.  The  number  six  appears 
five  times  in  each  row,  so  you  can  easily  tell  when  you  have  checked  all  in 
one  row.  Make  any  kind  of  a  mark  you  wish.  If  you  happen  to  make  a 
mistake  and  cross  out  the  wrong  number,  do  not  stop  to  erase — simply  draw 
a  ring  around  that  number  and  I  will  understand.  Two  minutes  will  be 
given.  When  I  call  time,  stop  instantly  and  turn  over  the  paper  face- 
downward.  I  will  give  the  signals.  Turn,  Go,  and  at  the  expiration  of  the 
time.  Stop.  Any  questions?” 

168492370127504869341890256371756089243786904312 
805134269240976153832041579684812673905379086521 
597846102518237496085932410769345208617931675840 
7396508149736150284047859621309315648724235,  67908 
253017986386091  54729367  48  01256493  120758612749053 
470385621609382714578109643525279416380104823795 
982561743835469201760213795842184957036095218674 
046279538062843975127456038913507842169568  192437 
614923057451728630919568327408620735491247350186 
321708495794150382656327184097068391524850431269 
962134058425193860790481723656283051497594807123 
681053742194537026804723865919036827154750329416 
734291865961248705319830654721579348260835972640 
476812590630759481248597312067102964538347165289 
597328401083614972525346901875417283906126583074 
3509472168570213946521084763927451906836897  10352 
809765324278465139031269587404820516379418056937 
048576139716802543967014239580694732815201648795 
1256809735093762184869751402383I51679042962431508 
213409687342980657173652098143968405721073294861 

5  R.  S.  Woodworth  and  F.  L.  Wells,  Association  Tests.  Psychol.  Rev. 

Mon.  Sup.  1911.  13,  p.  26. 

®  Blanks  for  Tests  No.  i,  10,  ii,  12,  14  and  15  were  secured  from  C.  H. 

Stoelting  and  Co.  In  this  test  and  all  others  where  time  was  kept,  an  ordinary 
stop-watch  was  used. 


5 

4 

2 

I 

8 

6 

3 

0 

9 

7 

6 

8 

I 

o 

9 

4 

2 

3 

7 

5 


22 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


Method  of  Scoring:  Each  digit  checked  correctly  counted  one 
unit.  No  deductions  were  made  for  omissions  or  wrong  figures 
checked. 

This  test,  recommended  by  the  Committee  on  Standardization 
from  the  American  Psychological  Association,  involves  a  num¬ 
ber  of  factors.  Some  of  these  are:  (i)  a  high  degree  of  con¬ 
centration,  (2)  quickness  of  perception  for  visually  apprehended 
forms,  (3)  speed  in  motor  response,  (4)  susceptibility  to  eye- 
strain,  (5)  ability  to  persist  beyond  the  point  of  fatigue.  The 
two-minute  period  devoted  to  this  work  was  undoubtedly  one 
of  extremely  close  application. 

Though  no  errors  were  counted  in  scoring,  still  observation  of 
the  errors  made  by  an  individual  in  this  test  throws  some  light 
upon  the  care  with  which  one  does  work  of  this  nature.  Of  the 
forty  individuals  whose  records  were  used,  more  than  fifty 
percent  (twenty-two)  made  no  errors, 

made  i  error, 

“  2  errors, 

“  3  “ 

(t  « 

“  8  “ 

“II  “ 

As  will  be  seen  in  Table  IV,  this  test  ranks  lowest  in  degree 
of  correlation  with  the  results  of  the  whole  series.  This  would 
be  expected  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  places  more  emphasis  upon 
motor  factors  than  most  of  the  other  tests. 

This  test  seems  on  the  whole,  to  be  a  useful  type  of  test,  for 
the  purposes  for  which  it  was  used,  not  from  the  standpoint  of 
its  high  correlation  with  “general  intelligence”  but  for  its  cor¬ 
roborative  value.  It  calls  for  the  exercise  of  considerable  speed, 
and  in  conjunction  with  other  tests  of  mental  quickness,  prob¬ 
ably  offers  some  corroborative  evidence  in  accentuating  a  ten¬ 
dency  toward  one  extreme  or  the  other. 

The  tests  that  are  generally  recognized  as  of  a  quite  purely 
memory  type  will  next  be  described.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 


5 

6 

3 

2 

I 

I 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  23 


assortment  used  was  quite  varied,  the  attempt  being  made  to 
secure  rote  material,  material  logically  connected,  to  test  memory 
for  impressions  made  through  two  different  sense  avenues,  and 
to  test  immediate  and  deferred  reproduction. 


Test  No.  2  Numbers  Heard^  g 
Materials  :  Blank  sheet  of  paper  and  pencil. 

Directions :  “I  am  going  to  read  some  numbers  aloud,  and  shall  ask 
you  to  listen  very  carefully.  When  I  have  finished  each  group,  and  not 
until  then,  I  wish  you  to  write  the  numbers  down  just  as  I  give  them — the 
same  numbers,  in  the  same  order.  If  you  leave  out  any  one,  indicate  its 
position  in  the  group  by  a  dash.  Before  giving  each  group  I  will  tell  you 
how  many  digits  it  contains.  Questions?” 


6135 

2947 

36814 

57296 

241637 

935816 

8537142 

9412837 

47293815 

71836245 

924738615 

475296318 

8697132504 

2146073859 

Practice  was  given  with  two  groups  of  three  digits  each,  using 
the  numbers  816,435.  Of  course,  the  groups  of  four  digits  each 
also  served  as  practice  groups,  inasmuch  as  they  are  too  short 


G.  M.  Whipple,  iManual  of  Mental  land  Physical  Tests,  Warwick  and 
York,  Baltimore,  1910.  p.  362. 


24 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


to  be  real  tests  of  memory  for  college  students.  The  numbers 
were  given  at  the  rate  of  two  per  second. 

Method  of  Scoring:®  The  score  represents  the  number  of 
digits  reproduced  in  correct  order. 

Test  No.  3.  Objects  Seen,  i 

Materials :  Covered  box  twelve  by  twenty  by  three  inches, 
containing  the  following  objects  fastened  to  the  bottom:  foun¬ 
tain-pen,  pencil  twenty-five  cent  piece,  envelope,  ink-well,  maroon 
ribbon,  ruler,  pen-filler,  two-cent  stamp  and  key. 

Directions:  “I  am  going  to  show  you  a  group  of  objects  for  six  seconds, 
then  will  ask  you  to  name  them  aloud  from  memory.” 

Method  of  Scoring:  The  score  represents  the  number  of 
objects  correctly  reproduced. 

Test  No.  4.  Logically  Related  Material,  Heard  g 

Materials :  Blank  sheet  of  paper  and  pencil. 

Directions :  “I  am  going  to  read  you  a  rather  long  passage  and  shall  ask  you 
to  listen  very  carefully,  for  when  I  have  finished,  I  wish  you  to  reproduce 
the  meaning  of  the  passage.  The  passage  is  too  long  for  you  to  remember 
word  for  word,  but  try  to  get  the  entire  meaning,  then  in  reproducing,  use 
the  same  words  as  appear  in  the  text  whenever  you  can.” 

More  than  once,  |  it  has  happened  |  in  the  history  |  of  science,  | 
that  a  phenomenon  |  predicted  |  by  theory,  |  has  not  been  brought 
within  the  range  of  actual  observation  |  until  long  afterwards.] 
An  astronomer  |  predicted  |  the  existence  |  and  location  |  of  the 
planet  |  Neptune,  |  but  it  was  not  until  some  time  later  ]  that  the 
planet  |  was  found  |  at  the  predicted  spot.  |  Similarly,  ]  a  phys¬ 
icist  I  unfolded  ]  theoretically  |  the  phenomenon  ]  of  the  so-called 
refraction  of  light,  |  but  it  was  reserved  |  for  a  successor  |  to  ob¬ 
serve  I  the  fact.  I  A  third  |  instance  [  is  found  |  in  the  for¬ 
tunes  I  of  the  theory  of  audition.]  An  eminent  ]  physiologist  ]  of 
the  nineteenth  century  ]  suggested  ]  that  the  little  ]  hair-cells  ]  in 

,  ®  For  discussion  of  methods  of  scoring  this  test,  see  H.  T.  Woolley  and 
C.  R.  Fischer,  Mental  and  Physical  Measurements  of  Working  Children, 
Psychological  Review  Monograph  Supplement,  No.  77,  December,  1914. 
p.  124  ff. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  25 


the  inner  |  ear  |  vibrate  |  sympathetically  |  when  appropriate  | 
wave-lengths  |  reach  |  the  ear.  |  Some  time  subsec|uent  |  to  the 
proposal  I  of  this  explanation,  |  minute,  ]  hairy  ]  filaments  |  on  the 
bodies  |  of  Crustacea  ]  were  seen  to  vibrate  |  sympathetically  | 
when  sounds  |  were  made  |  in  the  vicinity  |  of  the  animals.]  On 
investigation  |  these  hairs  |  were  found  to  be  connected  |  with  the 
auditory  nerve,  |  and  to  constitute  |  the  mechanism  of  hearing  | 
for  the  animal.]  The  analogy  ]  of  this  arrangement  ]  to  the 
structure  ]  of  the  human  ]  inner  ]  ear  ]  was  instantly  seen,  ]  and 
thus  that  which  had  previously  ]  been  propounded  ]  as  a  theory  ] 
was  established  ]  as  a  fact.]® 

Method  of  scoring:  It  will  be  noted  that  this  passage,  as  does 
the  following  one,  contains  a  main  proposition  and  three  illustra¬ 
tions,  the  last  one  of  which  is  amplified.  For  reproduction  of  the 
main  proposition  two  units  were  given;  for  mention  of  the  first, 
second  and  third  illustrations  there  were  given  14,  13  and  14 
units  respectively.  Thus  by  merely  stating  the  main  proposition 
and  the  illustrations,  the  individual  could  score  43.  In  addition  to 
these  gross  divisions,  the  passage  was  further  divided  into  81 
“ideas.”  Counting  each  of  these  as  two-thirds  of  a  unit,  their 
united  value  is  54,  which  added  to  the  43  units  mentioned,  per¬ 
mits  scoring  on  a  basis  of  97  points  for  correct  reproduction  of 
the  passage. 

Test  No.  6.  Logically  Related  Material,  Seen,  g 

Materials :  Papers  containing  the  passage  beginning  “When  a 
man  confines — ”  in  mimeographed  form  laid  face-downward 
on  the  desks. 

Directions :  “On  the  reverse  side  of  the  paper  before  you  will  be  found 
a  long  passage  which  I  wish  you  to  read  carefully  when  I  give  the 
signal.  Read  it  but  once,  then  turn  it  over,  and  on  the  back  of  it  write  all 
you  can  recall  of  the  passage.  Be  careful  to  read  each  sentence  but  once, 
then  turn  over  the  paper  and  reproduce  the  meaning  as  accurately  as 
possible.” 

9  Adapted  from  Popular  Science  Lectures,  E.  Mach.  Open  Court  Publish¬ 
ing  Co.  Chicago,  1895.  P-  29. 


26 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


When  a  man  [  confines  his  activities  |  to  one  particular 
field,  I  attempting  |  to  specialize  therein,  |  there  is  great  proba¬ 
bility  I  that  his  capacity  for  enjoyments  |  of  an  aesthetic  [  or 
spiritual  character  |  will  be  lost.]  Let  a  man  who  loves  poetry  | 
drop  all  interest  in  literature  |  for  a  long  time,  |  and  give  himself 
up  I  to  the  ardors  [  of  scientific  research,  |  and  he  will  find  |  that 
the  beauties  |  of  poetry  ]  in  time  |  cease  to  have  any  charm  for 
him.  I  Similarly,  |  let  one  who  was  deeply  religious  |  in  early 
life,  I  leave  off  religious  activity  |  and  turn  his  attention  |  to  the 
pursuit  of  wealth,  |  and  he  will  find  |  that  the  fires  of  religious 
zeal  and  enthusiasm  |  grow  cold,  ]  leaving  him  unresponsive  |  to 
religious  appeal.]  A  pitiful  |  example  j  of  this  tendency  j  toward 
atrophy  |  on  the  part  of  the  emotions,  |  is  found  |  in  the  case  of 
Darwin.]  In  his  youth,  ]  he  was  a  passionate  ]  lover  of  music,  ] 
but  was  unable  to  maintain  his  interest  in  it,  ]  owing  to  his 
absorption  ] in  scientific  pursuits.]  In  later  life,]  he  sought  ]  to 
revive  his  interest  ]  in  music,]  but  discovered  ]  to  his  intense  sor¬ 
row  ]  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to  find  enjoyment  therein.]  He 
had  so  long  ]  neglected  ]  the  faculty  ]  of  musical  enjoyment  ]  that 
it  had  become  completely  atrophied.  ] 

Method  of  Scoring:  For  reproduction  of  the  main  proposi¬ 
tion,  two  units  were  given;  for  statement  of  first,  second  and 
third  illustrations,  14,  13  and  14  units  respectively  were  given.  In 
addition  to  the  43  units  thus  credited,  the  passage  contained  57 
“ideas”  which  counted  as  one  unit  each,  thus  permitting  scoring 
on  the  basis  of  100. 

Tests  No.  5,  7,  8,  9, — Deferred  Reproduction  of  Logically 
Related  Material  Heard  and  Seen. 

Materials :  Blank  sheets  of  paper. 

Directions:  “Write  all  you  can  recall  of  the  passage  I  read  to  you  at  the 
last  psychological  examination  beginning.  “More  than  once  it  has  happened 
in  the  history  of  science.” 

“Write  all  you  can  recall  of  the  passage  you  read  at  the  last  psychological 
examination,  beginning,  “When  a  man  confines  his  activities  to  one  particular 
field.” 

Method  of  Scoring :  Same  as  above.  It  happened  that  in  the 
second  reproductions  some  subjects  reproduced  more  “ideas” 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  27 

than  they  did  the  first  time.  Such  gains  were  not  counted  in 
comparing  the  amounts  lost ;  the  individual  simply  being  credited 
with  having  lost  nothing.  To  one  who  has  scored  memory  tests, 
the  difficulties  of  the  present  task  are  manifest.  It  is  necessary 
to  lay  down  arbitrary  rules  and  to  adhere  to  them  closely.  Some 
of  those  most  constantly  used  in  the  scoring  of  these  passages  are 
as  follows : 

1.  When  an  “idea”  was  repeated  no  credit  was  given  for  the 
repetition. 

2.  When  “ideas”  were  interpolated  which  were  clearly  not 
found  in  the  original  passage,  but  were  mere  wild  guesses,  no 
credit  was  given. 

3.  In  mentioning  the  illustrations,  if  an  individual  gave  half 
of  an  illustration,  half  credit  was  given.  For  example,  some 
remembered  that  the  second  illustration  in  the  passage  heard  con¬ 
tained  something  about  a  physicist  but  could  not  recall  the  idea 
“refraction  of  light.”  Such  an  incomplete  statement  was  given 
a  credit  of  7  instead  of  13. 

The  difficulties  of  scoring  memory  passages  need  not  be  unduly 
magnified.  It  is  true  that  the  order  in  which  the  “ideas”  are 
reproduced  does  not  follow  the  original  with  strict  fidelity,  still, 
owing  to  the  faithfulness  of  the  retentive  powers  of  the  mind, 
it  is  possible,  after  some  experience  in  scoring,  to  match  up  the 
various  meanings  and  to  identify  them  with  the  original  sources 
with  a  tolerable  degree  of  accuracy. 

As  already  said  these  memory  tests  were  planned  with  view  to 
securing  a  variety  of  measures.  On  the  basis  of  material  they 
may  be  classed  as  Rote  and  Logical.  On  the  basis  of  sense  organ 
impressed,  the  material  was  either  heard  or  seen.  Lastly  the 
ef¥ort  was  made  to  measure  both  primary  and  secondary  memory, 
the  latter  reproduction  occurrring  two  weeks  after  the  first. 

In  manipulating  the  measures  secured  by  the  use  of  Tests  2 
and  3  one  is  handicapped  by  small  range  of  measures.  This  tends 
to  obscure  the  meaning  of  the  measures.  In  Test  2  a  wider  range 
of  measures  might  be  secured  by  adopting  a  different  method  of 
scoring.  Credit  might  be  given  for  position  of  the  digits  as  well 
as  for  correct  reproduction.  This  method  has  disadvantages. 


28 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


however,  some  of  which  are  discussed  by  Whipple^®  and  Wool- 
ley  and  Fischer, “ 

In  Test  3  the  difficulty  due  to  small  range  of  measures  might 
be  reduced  somewhat  by  the  use  of  more  objects  exposed  for  a 
longer  time.  Whipple^^  suggests,  however,  that  likelihood  of 
such  improvement  is  slight.  This  test  might  be  arranged  for 
administration  to  a  group  by  the  use  of  a  stereopticon  slide  show¬ 
ing  a  number  of  objects.  These  might  be  exposed  on  a  screen 
for  a  given  length  of  time,  then  the  subjects  might  write  down 
the  names  of  the  objects.  This  arrangement  would  permit  of 
testing  for  deferred  memory,  a  difficult  accomplishment  when 
the  test  is  given  as  an  individual  test. 

In  all  objects  tests  care  should  be  taken  to  use  objects  with 
simple  names,  and  objects  whose  names  come  readily  into  con¬ 
sciousness.  Otherwise  the  results  might  be  misleading  because 
it  might  happen  that  an  image  of  the  object  would  be  before  the 
subject,  still  he  might  fail  to  name  it  because  the  name  would 
refuse  to  come.  For  this  reason  care  was  taken  to  select  objects 
common  to  the  everyday  experience  of  university  students. 

The  degree  of  logical  relationship  (in  terms  of  use)  between 
objects  also  affects  this  test.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  objects  here 
used  are  frequently  associated  in  use,  e.g.,  envelope,  stamp,  pen, 
etc.  It  is  possible  that  with  objects  not  so  frequently  associated, 
the  results  would  have  been  different. 

Reference  to  Table  III  (p.  50)  shows  only  a  slight  degree 
of  correlation  between  the  results  of  these  two  so-called 
“memory  tests.”  Their  correlation  with  the  results  of  the  other 
“memory  tests”  is  equally  slight.  This  may  be  due  to  the  small 
range  of  measures  already  referred  to.  Another  reason,  how¬ 
ever,  may  be  that  these  two  tests  involve  immediate  recall, 
which  is  to  some  extent  a  “restoration  of  the  original  im¬ 
pression  which  is  slowly  fading.”  The  impression  is  still  in 
the  foreground  of  consciousness  and  partakes  of  much  of  the 
freshness  of  the  original  impression  before  it  has  been  vitiated 

Op.  cit. 

Op.  cit. 

12  Op  cit.,  p.  250. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  29 


by  the  disturbances  of  time  and  conflicting  impressions. 
For  this  reason  the  reproductions  were  probably  favored  by  the 
sense  avenue  used  in  impression.  In  the  reproduction  made  by 
persons  in  whom  visual  impressions  tend  to  persist,  the  persever¬ 
ance  of  the  impression  might  be  a  factor,  while  in  the  case  of 
persons  whose  visual  impressions  do  not  persist  so  easily,  reproduc¬ 
tion  would  be  scanty.  The  same  tendency  applied  in  the  auditory 
field  might  affect  Test  2.  Hence  the  memory  factor,  which  judg¬ 
ing  by  the  low  correlation  seems  to  operate  with  unequal  force 
if  at  all,  may  be  obscured  by  this  factor  of  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  impression  fades.  Most  of  the  evidence  seems  to  favor  tests 
for  secondary  memory  over  those  that  call  for  immediate  repro¬ 
duction  only. 

The  tests  for  “logical”  memory  were  planned  to  show  differen¬ 
ces  between  immediate  and  deferred  reproductions.  Here  re¬ 
tentive  capacity  is  unquestionably  demanded.  The  impressions 
must  be  retained  over  a  considerable  period  of  time.  This  results 
usually  in  some  losses.  The  change  is  not  only  of  a  quantitative 
nature,  affecting  the  number  of  “ideas”  retained.  It  is  also  quali¬ 
tative.  The  material  becomes  in  the  interim,  distorted  in  all  sorts 
of  ways  because  of  the  entrance  into  the  mind  of  conflicting  im¬ 
pressions.  Some  of  these  become  associated  with  those  retained 
and  become  part  of  the  fabric  of  the  first  impression.  Even  when 
new  material  is  not  introduced,  the  original  material  may  lose  its 
shape  and  some  parts  may  assume  prominence  over  others. 

It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  the  numerical  results  do  not 
tell  the  whole  story  in  any  person’s  reproduction.  There  exist 
qualitative  differences  among  the  reproductions  which  can  not  be 
expressed  numerically.  Particularly  is  this  true  in  deferrred 
reproductions.  Here  two  persons  may  give  the  same  number  of 
“ideas,”  but  the  faithfulness  with  which  they  adhere  to  the  origi- 
inal  both  in  order  and  in  content,  may  be  quite  different.  Fur¬ 
thermore  the  same  number  of  ideas  may  appear  in  two  repro¬ 
ductions,  but  they  may  differ  greatly  in  importance.  This 
important  qualitative  distinction  was  partially  provided  for  by 
the  method  of  scoring  which  gave  much  weight  to  the  main 
points  of  the  passages.  Any  qualitative  differences,  then,  con- 


30 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


cerned  only  the  minor  points,  and  in  the  arrangement  of  the  pas¬ 
sages,  it  was  aimed  to  have  these  minor  points  of  approximately 
equal  importance.  In  general  it  might  be  added,  that  subjects 
who  have  most  profuse  “ideas”  generally  give  the  best  presenta¬ 
tion  from  a  qualitative  standpoint,  while  those  whose  “ideas”  are 
scanty  generally  give  the  poorest  reproductions  from  a  qualitative 
standpoint.  On  the  whole,  then,  the  above  method  of  scoring 
represents  the  facts  fairly  satisfactorily. 

An  important  factor  in  measuring  secondary  memory  is  the 
mental  attitude  assumed  toward  the  time  of  reproduction.  If  a 
subject  memorizes  for  the  purpose  of  retaining  only  a  short 
time,  there  is  likelihood  that  he  will  forget  when  the  period  for 
which  he  consciously  memorized  has  passed.  On  the  other  hand 
if  he  intends  to  retain  for  a  long  time,  he  will  likely  retain  better 
than  if  he  formed  no  conscious  intention.  Allowance  for  this 
contingency  could  not  be  made  in  these  tests,  since  it  was  feared 
that  if  announcement  were  made  that  deferred  reproduction 
would  be  recjuired,  there  would  be  reviewing  on  the  part  of  some 
persons.  The  amount  of  review  could  not  be  controlled,  there¬ 
fore  it  was  regarded  as  more  practicable  to  say  nothing  about 
future  reproduction. 

The  attempt  was  made  to  have  the  two  logical  passages  as 
near  alike  as  possible.  Each  was  constructed  in  the  same  manner, 
having  a  main  proposition  with  three  illustrations,  of  which  the 
third  was  amplified.  Each  had  about  the  same  number  of  words. 
In  subject-matter  there  is  not  the  same  equality,  the  material 
in  Test  No.  6  probably  being  easier  to  grasp  and  to  retain  than 
that  in  Test  No.  4. 

This  type  of  test  calls  for  attention  to  logical  connection  and 
so  has  some  reasoning  involved.  The  activity  is  not  a  mere 
copying  of  facts;  the  mind  looks  for  relations  and  retains  the 
facts  by  means  of  the  relations  apprehended.  During  presenta¬ 
tion  the  mind  is  active  and  anticipates  the  next  step,  then  repro¬ 
duction  is  a  process  of  reinstatement.  Those  persons  who  char¬ 
acteristically  look  for  logical  connection  between  experiences,  saw 
at  once  the  relation  between  the  parts  of  the  passages  and  repro¬ 
duction  of  the  main  topics  was  an  easy  matter.  Some  of  the 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  31 

subjects  reported  that  they  kept  track  of  the  sub-topics  on  their 
fingers,  relating  each  one  to  the  main  proposition.  They  habit¬ 
ually  schematize  experiences  and  place  them  in  headings  and 
sub-headings  in  their  minds.  Persons  who  do  not  follow  con¬ 
nected  trains  of  thought  easily  would  not  see  the  relation  between 
the  parts  so  clearly,  therefore  they  would  miss  some  sub-topics. 
Details,  however,  might  be  recalled  in  profusion  regardless  of 
propensity  for  straight  thinking. 

Judging  from  the  degree  of  correlation  found  between  the 
results  of  the  memory  tests  it  appears  that  the  most  reliable 
test  for  memory  is  that  for  deferred  rather  than  immediate 
reproduction.  The  scores  in  immediate  reproduction  of  logical 
material  heard  and  seen  correlate,  with  an  index  of  .26,  but  after 
an  interval  of  two  weeks  the  residuum  is  constant  enough  to 
produce  a  correlation  coefficient  of  .54,  showing  that  the  subjects 
tend  to  assume  the  same  positions  in  the  group  as  time  goes  on. 
As  might  be  expected,  the  losses  correlate  with  a  similar  degree 
of  correspondence,  .54. 

The  retention  factor  in  the  process  is  probably  more  influen¬ 
tial  than  the  sense  avenue  utilized  in  making  the  impression.  This 
is  suggested  by  the  low  index  of  correlation  between  scores  in 
Tests  5  and  7  and  by  the  fact  that  the  correlation  between  scores 
in  immediate  and  deferred  reproductions  is  higher,  .49.  Similarly 
that  between  scores  in  material  seen  and  reproduced  immediately 
and  the  same  thing  reproduced  two  w’eeks  later  is  also  higher, 
being  .45.  This  conclusion  is  further  strengthened  by  reference 
to  the  correlation  between  results  of  Numbers  heard  and  Objects 
seen  which  is  but  .09.  The  results  indicate  that  the  more  reliable 
measures  of  memory  are  obtained  by  the  method  of  deferred 
reproduction.  Of  course  the  second  reproduction  was  doubtless 
influenced  somewhat  by  the  “immediate”  reproduction.  This 
fixed  the  matter  somewhat  more  firmly  in  mind  than  if  immediate 
reproduction  had  not  been  required.  It  is  easily  seen,  however, 
that  in  this  preliminary  investigation  it  was  necessary  to  have 
both  records  for  purposes  of  comparison. 

The  memory  tests  on  the  whole  seem  good  tools  with  which 
to  study  the  mental  ability  of  students.  Marked  differences 


32 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


were  discovered  between  the  two  sense  avenues  as  media  of  pre¬ 
sentation  for  certain  students,  and  on  questioning,  they  reported 
that  their  experience  had  borne  out  the  findings  of  the  tests.  The 
tests  also  proved  to  be  fairly  consistent  measures  of  the  efficiency 
of  immediate  versus  secondary  memory.  These  findings,  also, 
corresponded  closely  with  the  introspections  of  the  students. 
Altogether,  these  memory  tests  furnished  data  of  value  quantita¬ 
tively  and  qualitatively,  and  furnish  a  group  of  measures  that 
balance  or  “compensate”  for  those  tests  which  emphasize  par¬ 
ticularly  rapidity  of  the  mental  processes.  The  form  in  which 
these  tests  were  administered  makes  them  easy  to  give,  but 
there  is  great  need  for  standardization  of  passages  suitable  to 
college  students.  Many  kinds  of  material  should  be  studied  from 
the  standpoint  of  equality  in  difficulty,  interest-value  and 
familiarity. 


Test  No.  lo.  Opposites. i 
Materials :  List  of  Easy  and  Hard  Opposites. 


Easy  Opposites  List 


Hard  Opposites  List 


long 

soft 

white 

far 

up 

smooth 

early 

dead 

hot 

asleep 

lost 

wet 

high 

dirty 

east 

day 

yes 

wrong 

empty 

top 


north 

sour 

out 

weak 

good 

after 

above 

sick 

slow 

large 

rich 

dark 

front 

love 

tall 

open 


summer 


new 

come 

male 


^•3  Woodworth  and  Wells,  op.  cit.,  p.  6o. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  33 


Directions :  “I  am  going  to  give  you  two  lists  of  words  and  ask  you  to 
say  the  opposite  to  each  word  as  quickly  as  possible.  Do  not  say  the  word 
you  see  on  the  card.  Give  the  opposite.  Examples :  Give  opposite  of  better, 
of  glad.”  The  subject  Avas  handed  each  of  these  lists  and  was  directed  to 
say  the  opposites  aloud. 

Method  of  Scoring:  The  work  was  scored  both  for  speed 
and  accuracy,  the  former  being  represented  by  the  number  of 
seconds  from  the  beginning  of  the  first  response  to  the  end  of 
the  last  one.  In  scoring  accuracy,  each  list  was  graded  on  the 
basis  of  100  with  5  deducted  for  every  wrong  response  or 
failure  to  respond  within  15  seconds.  These  scores  were  com¬ 
bined  into  a  net  index  by  dividing  the  time  by  the  accuracy. 
The  score  thus  represents  the  time  required  for  forty  reactions 
divided  by  the  accuracy  score.  In  cases  where  no  errors  were 
made,  the  score  represents  time  alone.  In  such  a  comparatively 
simple  test  as  this,  it  is  readily  apparent  that  accuracy  is  obtained 
with  comparatively  little  difficulty  on  the  part  of  college  students. 
Almost  half  of  this  group  of  subjects  obtained  a  score  of  100  in 
each  list.  Of  the  forty  students,  31  scored  100  in  accuracy  for 
the  Easy  test  and  21,  for  the  Hard  test,  indicating  that  they  are 
rightly  designated.  Easy  and  Hard. 

The  scoring  of  Opposites  tests  is  always  made  difficult  by  the 
fact  that  some  words  have  more  than  one  opposite.  An  arbitrary 
system  must  be  adhered  to  in  evaluating  responses.  The  two 
lists  here  used  are  free  from  these  difficulties  to  some  extent, 
thanks  to  the  work  of  the  Committee  on  Standardization.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  it  was  decided  to  score  words  only  right  and  wrong,  and 
not  to  give  half-credits.  In  the  case  of  a  few  words,  however, 
there  still  remains  some  ambiguity.  To  each  of  the  following 
words  more  than  one  opposite  is  possible,  and  either  one  was 
counted  correct. 


above 

below, 

under 

slow 

quick, 

fast 

front 

back, 

rear,  behind 

dead 

alive. 

living 

open 

shut. 

closed 

come 

§■0. 

gone,  went 

empty 

full. 

filled 

far 

near. 

close 

34 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


There  are  a  few  more  words  in  the  lists  that  present  ambiguities, 
but  any  responses  to  them  other  than  the  generally  accepted 
opposites  were  not  counted  as  correct  so  they  are  not  included  in 
the  above  list.  They  offer  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  success  of 
the  test,  however,  and  should  be  eliminated.  The  disadvantage 
of  ambiguous  words  connects  itself  not  only  with  the  production 
of  two  or  more  words  from  which  scoring  must  be  made;  it  also 
concerns  the  mental  attitude  of  the  subject.  In  the  opinion  of 
the  writer,  these  ambiguous  words  are  productive  of  long  pauses 
and  incorrrect  responses  because  of  conflict  of  impulses.  The 
conflict  may  be  of  a  logical  nature,  or  as  Jung^^  opines,  of  an 
essentially  emotional  character.  The  process  probably  consists 
of  an  impulse  to  say  one  word,  then  before  the  response  can  be 
made,  an  impulse  arises  to  say  another  word.  The  result  is  a 
long  pause,  or  a  complete  inhibition  of  response,  or  an  incorrect 
response.  Two  examples  will  illustrate  the  point.  The  word 
“come”  was  a  stumbling-block  to  many  of  the  subjects.  On  the 
theory  just  presented,  the  long  pauses  or  failures  may  be  due  to 
the  fact  that  the  word  has  two  opposites  depending  on  the 
tense  in  which  it  is  interpreted.  In  the  present  tense,  the  proper 
response  is  “go,”  but  in  the  perfect  tense,  the  opposite  is  “gone.” 
“Went”  was  given  most  frequently  next  to  the  correct  opposite. 
The  word  “love”  was  another  stumbling-block.  The  difficulty 
here  may  be  two-fold.  In  the  first  place  it  may  consist  in  the 
fact  that  the  word  can  be  regared  either  as  verb  or  noun.  The 
words  commonly  associated  with  it  are,  “hate”  and  “hatred” 
and  the  conflict  might  produce  a  long  pause  or  a  complete  dead¬ 
lock.  There  is  another  type  of  explanation,  however,  which 
instantly  occur rs  to  one  in  the  light  of  recent  pronouncements 
from  Freudian  sources.  It  may  be  that  the  word  “love”  is  pro¬ 
vocative  of  such  strong  emotional  reaction  in  these  adolescents 
that  its  usually  associated  opposite  can  come  into  consciousness 
only  with  great  difficulty.  Again,  there  may  be  only  an  aversion 
to  saying  “hate,”  the  pause  representing  a  search  for  a  milder 
word.  It  might  further  be  questioned  whether  or  not  “hate”  is 
the  true  opposite  of  love.  The  attempt  was  made  to  secure  some 

The  Association  Method,  A.  J.  of  P.  21,  1910.  Pp.  223  fif. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  35 


introspections  on  these  points  from  those  who  experienced  special 
difficulty,  but  without  success.  When  asked  what  was  in  their 
minds  at  such  pauses,  the  subjects  usually  replied  “nothing.”  Of 
course  they  were  untrained  observers  and  could  not  throw  much 
light  upon  the  problem.  It  is  not  unreasonable,  however,  to 
suppose  that  a  conflict  may  have  been  present,  though  the  subject 
was  not  aware  of  its  significance. 

The  following  list,  compiled  from  the  records  of  137  students 
taking  the  test  for  the  first  time  during  the  years  1913-14  and 
1914-15,  shows  the  effect  of  the  ambiguities.  In  the  case  of  the 
two  words  “come”  and  “love”  are  included  some  of  the  incorrect 
responses  in  order  to  show  how  frequent  is  the  tendency  toward 
incorrect  responses. 

above  under  7  times 

slow  quick  4  times,  swift  i  time 

front  behind  6  times;  rear  4  times 

dead  living  3  times 

open  closed  8  times 

come  went  14  times;  gone  7  times;  stay  or  stay  away 

6  times 

empty  filled  i  time;  vacant  i  time 

far  close  6  times 

love  dislike  i  time;  distaste  i  time;  detest  i  time;  disre¬ 

gard  I  time;  good  i  time;  ill  i  time;  no  re¬ 
sponse  13  times. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  majority  of  these  undesirable  words 
are  found  in  the  Hard  list.  It  is  possible  that  its  difficulties  may 
be  due  to  these  words  alone,  and  that  when  the  ambiguous  words 
in  both  lists  are  eliminated,  they  will  be  equal  in  difficulty. 

The  Opposites  test,  regarded  as  a  measure  of  speed  of  mental 
processes,  has  proved  acceptable  in  the  present  investigation. 
Reference  to  Table  IV  (p.  51)  shows  that  this  test  ranks  second 
in  degree  of  correlation  with  all  the  tests  combined.  As  one 
of  a  group  of  “speed”  tests  it  has  considerable  symptomatic  value. 
It  calls  for  the  exercise  of  a  type  of  mental  gymnastics  quite 
common  in  everyday  life,  and  in  the  experience  of  the  ordinary 
person,  the  two  ideas  are  so  commonly  coupled  as  to  be  almost 
automatic.  Readiness  of  speech  seems  to  demand  such  facility. 


36 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON  ' 


Test  No.  II.  Constant  Increment®  i 
Materials :  Card  containing  one  hundred  two-place  numbers. 


64 

72 

47 

30 

49 

35 

43 

56 

62 

51 

35 

44 

57 

30 

64 

31 

68 

56 

49 

37 

74 

44 

67 

60 

53 

36 

28 

71 

67 

73 

46 

48 

25 

63 

55 

53 

40 

47 

65 

61 

61 

43 

70 

36 

71 

66 

41 

42 

33 

69 

62 

34 

38 

37 

25 

39 

28 

39 

40 

33 

65 

32 

57 

73 

41 

59 

26 

38 

50 

31 

68 

63 

42 

60 

66 

58 

58 

48 

27 

32 

52 

54 

51 

59 

70 

46 

69 

52 

26 

55 

29 

45 

34 

27 

74 

72 

45 

29 

50 

54 

Directions :  “I  am  going  to  give  you  a  list  of  lOO  numbers  and  shall  ask 
you  to  add  four  to  each  number  as  quickly  as  possible,  giving  the  sum  aloud. 
You  may  practice  on  this  list:  22,  34,  92.  Begin  at  the  top  of  each  of  the  four 
columns  and  add  four  to  each  number.  You  need  not  be  afraid  to  go  fast, 
for  the  test  is  easy  and  you  are  not  likely  to  make  mistakes.  You  should  be 
accurate,  however,  because  every  error  will  take  off  one  point  from  your 
score.  The  main  thing  is  to  add  as  rapidly  as  possible.” 

Method  of  Scoring:  Accuracy  was  scored  by  subtracting  one 
unit  for  every  error.  The  time  is  represented  by  the  number  of 
seconds  required  for  the  100  additions.  A  net  index  was  obtained 
by  dividing  the  number  of  seconds  by  the  accuracy  score.  Of  the 
40  students  in  this  group,  only  4  obtained  perfect  scores  in  ac- 
Woodworth  and  Wells,  op.  cit.,  p.  47 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  2>7 


curacy,  but  there  were  very  few  low  accuracy  scores,  most  of 
the  errors  numbering  from  two  to  five. 

This  test,  like  the  preceding  one,  aims  to  measure  reaction 
time  for  almost  automatized  response.  It  is  easy  to  administer 
and  easy  to  score,  and  when  used  in  company  with  other  measures 
of  speed  of  mental  processes,  undoubtedly  has  some  symptomatic 
value.  However,  the  activity  is  rather  highly  specialized  and  is 
so  patently  influenced  by  practice  that  on  the  whole  it  is  not 
recommended  as  desirable  for  a  series  of  general  utility.  Its  use 
with  the  present  subjects  was  probably  attended  with  less  diffi¬ 
culty  than  with  the  ordinary  academic  group  inasmuch  as  the 
members  of  this  group  had  nearly  all  had  considerable  experience 
with  adding.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  a  less  specialized  type 
of  activity  would  be  preferable  in  measuring  speed  of  mental 
processes.  If  use  is  made  of  the  test  in  such  measurements  as 
this,  the  author  suggests  that  one  hundred  additions  is  an  un¬ 
necessarily  large  number  to  require.  It  is  quite  likely  that 
twenty-five  would  give  as  useful  a  measure. 

Test  No.  12.  Hard  Directions^®  (Instructions  printed)  i 

Materials  :  Blanks,  like  sample,  laid  face  downward. 

Directions :  “On  the  reverse  side  of  this  paper  will  be  found  a  series  of 
directions  which  I  wish  you  to  carry  out  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The  direc¬ 
tions  will  require  you  to  write  certain  words  and  to  answer  certain  ques¬ 
tions  in  spaces  provided  for  the  purpose.  The  object  is  to  complete  the 
work  correctly  as  quickly  as  possible,  so  do  not  stop  till  you  have  finished.” 

Method  of  Scoring:  The  work  was  scored  as  to  time  and  ac¬ 
curacy.  Every  error,  of  which  twenty  were  possible,  counted 
five  off  except  the  last  direction  where  2.5  was  counted  off  for 
each  wrong  initial.  A  net  index  was  secured  by  dividing  the 
time  by  the  accuracy.  Fourteen  of  the  40  subjects  scored  100 
in  accuracy. 

With  your  pencil  make  a  dot  over  any  one  of  these  let¬ 
ters,  F  G  H  I  J,  and  a  comma  after  the  longest  of  these 
three  words :  boy  mother  girl  Then,  if  Christmas  comes  in 

March,  make  a  cross  right  here . but  if  not,  pass  along  to 

the  next  question,  and  tell  where  the  sun  rises . 

Woodworth  and  Wells,  op.  cit. 


38 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


If  you  believe  that  Edison  discovered  America,  cross  out  what 
you  just  wrote,  but  if  it  was  some  one  else,  put  in  a  number  to 


complete  this  sentence:  “A  horse  has . feet.”  Write  yes, 

no  matter  whether  China  is  in  Africa  or  not . ;  and  then 


give  a  v/rong  answer  to  this  question :  “How  many  days  are 

there  in  the  week?” . Write  any  letter  except  g 

just  after  this  comma,  and  then  write  no  if  2  times  5  are  10 

.  Now,  if  Tuesday  comes  after  Monday,  make  two 

crosses  here . ;  but  if  not,  make  a  circle  here . or 

else  a  square  here .  Be  sure  to  make  three  crosses  be¬ 
tween  these  two  names  of  boys :  George . Henry. 

Notice  these  two  numbers:  3,  5.  If  iron  is  heavier  than  water, 

write  the  larger  number  here . ,  but  if  iron  is  lighter 

write  the  smaller  number  here .  Show  by  a  cross  when 

the  nights  are  longer :  in  summer  ? . in  winter  ? . 

Give  the  correct  answer  to  this  question :  “Does  water  run 

uphill?”  .  and  repeat  your  answer  here . 

Do  nothing  here  (5  +  7= . ),  unless  you  skipped  the 

preceding  question;  but  write  the  first  letter  of  your  first  name 
and  the  last  letter  of  your  last  name  at  the  ends  of  this  line : 


Two  difficulties  are  to  be  found  with  the  test  in  its  present 
form.  It  was  found  by  experimenting  with  a  preliminary  group 
of  subjects,  that  there  was  a  tendency  to  misinterpret  the  first 
direction.  Several  persons  thought  they  were  to  place  a  dot  over 
the  five  letters  whenever  they  appeared  in  the  entire  text.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  the  precaution  was  taken  to  draw  a  line  through  this 
direction  in  giving  the  test  to  the  college  students  being  studied. 
The  test  is  also  embarrassed  by  the  fact  that  the  last  direction,  as 
printed  on  the  blanks  now  available  is  open  to  misinterpretation. 
The  line  at  the  ends  of  which  the  subject  is  asked  to  place  his 
initials,  resembles  a  decoration  on  the  page.  By  far  the  greater 
number  of  subjects  so  regarded  it,  and  placed  their  initials  at 
the  end  of  the  printed  line  after  the  colon.  Accordingly  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  the  initials  was  disregarded  in  scoring. 

This  test  seems  to  demand  more  than  mere  ability  to  follow 
directions.  Most  of  the  tasks  are  of  such  a  nature  that  they  can 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  39 


not  be  performed  according  to  the  first  suggestion.  The  impulse 
is  checked  by  a  conflicting  or  alternate  command.  Accordingly 
the  activity  seems  to  partake  largely  of  the  nature  of  a  resistance 
to  suggestion,  or  of  any  effort  to  resist  impulses.  In  comparing 
the  reactions  of  individual  students  to  this  test,  it  was  noticeable 
that  those  who  had  exhibited  the  power  to  “hold  their  heads”  in 
distracting  circumstances  stood  high  in  this  test,  while  those  of 
opposite  tendency  were  seriously  disturbed.  It  gives  opportunity 
to  observe  the  student  under  trying  circumstances,  and  throws 
considerable  light  upon  his  habits  of  attacking  new  situations. 

Test  No.  13.  Directions.  (Oral) 

Materials :  Two  pieces  of  type-writer  paper  folded  ready  for 
insertion  in  a  long  envelope.  Electric  switch-board,  in  two 
rooms;  in  the  ante-room,  a  clock,  table,  book,  one  chair  on 
which  assistant  is  seated. 

Directions :  “I  am  going  to  give  you  a  series  of  tasks  which  I  wish  you 
to  execute  as  quickly  and  correctly  as  possible.  There  are  a  number  of 
things  to  be  held  in  mind,  so  listen  to  the  directions  very  carefully.” 

1.  Go  to  the  room  at  the  end  of  the  hall  and  lay  this  paper 
on  the  chair. 

2.  Then  hide  this  paper  where  it  can  not  readily  be  found. 

3.  Then  open  switch  number  six. 

4.  Then  look  at  the  clock  and  see  what  time  it  says. 

5.  If  it  says  it  is  after  ten  o’clock,  leave  the  door  open  as 
you  come  out  . 

6.  Bring  me  a  book  off  the  table. 

Be  as  quick  as  possible  and  do  not  ask  any  questions.  On  his 
return,  the  subject  was  asked  what  time  it  was  by  the  clock. 

Method  of  Scoring:  The  accuracy  with  which  the  directions 
were  carried  out  was  scored  on  the  basis  of  100  by  giving  a 
credit  of  16^  for  each  task.  The  net  index  was  found  by 
dividing  the  time  by  the  accuracy.  Only  eight  of  the  forty  sub¬ 
jects  performed  the  tasks  exactly  as  directed.  There  is  a  ques¬ 
tion  as  to  what  is  the  fairer  method  of  scoring.  Should  the 
basis  be  speed  or  accuracy?  Though  a  combination  of  both  was 


40 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


adopted,  some  doubt  was  entertained  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
plan.  Scores  in  speed  and  accuracy  show  no  positive  corre¬ 
lation  ( — .ii).  Furthermore  the  accuracy  scores  vary  widely 
— from  50  to  100 — and  one  would  suppose  that  the  low  scores 
would  prevent  a  high  correlation  between  scores  in  speed  and 
index.  The  correlation  seems  surprisingly  high,  however,  being 
.95.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  rather  low  scores  in  accuracy  did 
not  seriously  alter  the  standing  of  the  individuals  with  respect  to 
speed.  As  final  evidence  that  the  net  index  as  thus  obtained 
does  measure  speed,  is  the  fact  that  scores  in  speed  of  carrying 
out  printed  directions  correlate  with  those  in  the  oral  test  by  .23, 
and  the  indices  of  the  two  tests  correlate  with  the  same  coefficient. 
Of  course  this  still  does  not  answer  the  question  as  to  whether 
accuracy  would  not  be  a  truer  measure  of  this  ability. 

Memory  plays  a  rather  important  part  in  the  oral  directions 
test.  Success  in  it  demands  that  one  retain  a  number  of  details 
in  a  certain  order.  It  also  requires  the  ability  to  “hold  one’s 
head”  in  spite  of  distractions.  Several  distractions  were  intro¬ 
duced  such  as  might  occur  in  any  business  situation.  With  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  first  direction  there  was  only  one  chair  in  the  room, 
and  the  assistant  was  seated  on  that.  This  disturbed  many  of 
the  subjects.  All  were  obliged  to  make  quick  decisions  as  to 
what  disposition  they  should  make  of  the  paper.  Some  obeyed 
the  instructions  implicitly  and  asked  the  assistant  to  rise;  others 
tucked  it  behind  her.  Still  others,  however,  made  no  attempt  to 
obey  the  direction  and  deposited  the  paper  on  the  table.  A  fur¬ 
ther  distraction  was  presented  in  making  the  closing  of  the  door 
contingent  upon  the  time  as  told  by  the  clock  on  the  table.  The 
hands  of  the  clock  were  always  set  at  10:30  and  it  did  not  run. 
The  surprise  encountered  here  caused  some  to  forget  the  instruc¬ 
tions  about  closing  the  door.  The  peculiar  wording  given  to  this 
direction  was  also  slightly  disconcerting.  Lastly  there  were 
twelve  switches  in  a  row,  and  it  was  necessary  to  remember  which 
one  to  throw  oft*.  The  whole  situation  called  up  by  this  test  serves 
to  throw  considerable  illumination  upon  the  way  a  person  meets 
novel  and  complex  situations. 

The  experience  with  this  test  shows  need  for  several  changes. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  41 


It  would  be  better  to  have  all  the  tasks  performed  in  the  same 
room  and  to  dispense  with  the  need  for  an  assistant.  The  direc¬ 
tion  about  the  time  of  day  might  well  be  omitted.  It  was  found 
that  some  subjects  did  not  look  at  the  clock,  reporting,  when  they 
came  back  to  the  test-room,  that  they  got  the  time  from  their 
watches.  Of  course  this  counted  against  the  score,  constituting 
a  deviation  from  the  directions,  but  it  should  be  omitted  from  the 
test  because  it  offers  opportunity  for  misinterpretation. 

Test  No.  14.  Word-building^^  g 

Materials :  Blank  sheet  of  paper  with  capital  letters,  B,  M, 
T,  A,  E,  O  across  the  top  laid  face-downward  upon  the  desk. 

Directions :  “On  the  reverse  side  of  the  paper  before  you  are  six  letters 
which  I  wish  you  to  use  in  building  words.  Make  as  many  words  as  possi¬ 
ble  from  the  six  letters.  For  example,  out  of  the  letters  e,  a,  r,  i,  1,  p,  you 
might  form  words  like  rap,  lip,  etc.  You  may  use  any  number  of  letters 
from  one  to  six,  but  no  other  letters  than  these  six  are  to  be  used.  Any 
English  words  will  do — proper  names,  interjections:  only  be  sure  that  they 
fulfill  the  above  conditions.  Five  minutes  will  be  given.” 

Test  No.  15.  Sentence-building.^®  g 

Materials ;  Blank  paper  and  pencil. 

Directions :  “I  will  give  you  five  minutes  in  which  to  make  as  many  sen¬ 
tences  as  possible  containing  three  words  which  I  will  give  you  presently. 
For  example,  if  I  gave  you  the  words  money,  river,  Chicago,  you  might 
make  a  sentence  like  this  :  “Chicago  spends  much  money  improving  its 
river.”  You  may  use  either  singular  or  plural  forms  of  the  words,  nom¬ 
inative,  objective  or  possessive  case.  Simply  use  all  three  of  the  words  in  a 
sensible  sentence  and  make  as  many  different  sentences  as  possible.  The 
three  words  are  citizen,  horse,  decree." 

Method  of  Scoring :  The  score  represents  the  number  of  sen¬ 
tences  formed. 

Tests  No.  14  and  15  suffer  under  the  handicap  of  small  range 
of  scores.  The  steps  between  the  scores  are  too  large  to  reveal 
slight  differences  in  achievement.  In  the  cases  of  the  sentences, 
the  papers  which  contained  a  relatively  large  number  of  sentences 

Whipple,  op.  cit.,  p.  441  ff. 

18  Whipple,  op.  cit.,  p.  436  ff. 


42 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


necessarily  showed  much  sameness  in  subject-matter  and 
structure. 

Both  these  tests  call  for  a  certain  amount  of  ingenuity  and 
alertness.  They  are  probably  influenced  somewhat  by  the  size  of 
the  vocabulary  at  the  command  of  the  subject.  The  amount  of 
work  done  in  each  of  these  five-minute  periods  is  small  in  com¬ 
parison  with  the  length ’of  time  devoted  to  the  tests.  It  would 
be  desirable  to  arrange  tests  that  allow  greater  amount  of  work 
to  be  performed  in  comparison  with  the  time  devoted  to  it. 
The  results  of  the  two  tests  do  not  correlate  very  highly  with 
each  other,  as  is  shown  by  Table  III  p.  50.  They  hold  similar 
positions  however,  in  correlation  with  the  scores  of  the  tests 
combined. 


Test  No.  16.  Business  Ingenuity  g 
Materials :  Mimeographed  copies  of  the  following  “problem.” 

lilr.  A.  is  in  the  manufacturing  business — manufacturing  knit  underwear. 
He  inherited  the  business  from  his  father  who  was  sole  owner  and  proprietor. 
On  the  death  of  the  latter,  which  occurred  a  year  ago,  the  business,  which 
aside  from  the  homestead  comprised  the  entire  estate,  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Mr.  A.,  Jr.,  and  his  sister. 

The  elder  Mr.  A.  had  conducted  the  business  for  forty  years  with  remark¬ 
able  success.  Under  his  wise  and  careful  management  it  had  grown  from 
a  small  work-shop  employing  a  dozen  persons,  to  a  plant  of  considerable 
proportions.  Its  employees  now  number  250 ;  there  are  10  salesmen,  and 
the  product  of  the  mills  is  surpassed  in  quality  by  none  on  the  market. 

Although  the  plant  had  expanded  greatly  under  the  guidance  of  its 
founder,  still  for  the  past  10  or  15  years  it  has  just  been  holding  its  own. 
Rival  firms  have  been  making  great  inroads  upon  its  trade.  The  old 
gentleman  scorned  the  artifices  of  modern  advertising  and  otherwise  refused 
to  make  any  concessions  to  the  cheaper  trade,  depending  upon  the  continued 
excellence  of  “Excelsior”  brand  goods  to  win.  Consequently,  at  his  demise, 
the  business  was  paying  only  moderate  dividends. 

With  the  removal  of  the  powerful  personality  that  had  always  dominated 
the  affairs  of  the  “Excelsior  Knitting  Mills,”  business  fell  off  alarmingly. 
Salesmen  daily  reported  the  loss  of  old  customers.  The  best  salesman  of  the 
force  tendered  his  resignation,  having  accepted  a  position  with  a  rival  house. 
Furthermore,  Congress  recently  raised  the  tariff  on  raw  wool,  thus  increasing 
the  cost  of  production.  In  addition  to  these  reverses,  Mr.  A.  has  been 
experiencing  considerable  financial  pressure  for  several  months.  It  is  now 
the  middle  of  January,  and  he  is  facing  a  crisis.  Last  summer,  being  hard 
pressed  by  his  importing  house  for  settlement  of  an  overdue  bill  for  raw 
material,  he  had  gone  to  the  bank  and  borrowed  $8,000,  giving  two  notes 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  43 


for  $4,000  each,  one  due  in  six  months,  and  the  other,  in  one  j^ear.  The  first 
note  falls  due  February  i,  two  weeks  off.  He  had  expected  to  meet  this 
obligation  in  February  with  remittances  from  his  customers,  who  by  this 
time  should  have  turned  over  a  great  part  of  their  winter  stock.  In  this  he 
was  disappointed,  however,  as  collections  are  extremely  slow  of  late,  being 
barely  sufficient  to  cover  the  pay-roll.  And  now  as  Mr.  A.  sits  at  his  desk, 
pondering  over  the  difficulties  that  confront  him,  the  aged  bookkeeper  who 
had  served  the  firm  for  25  years  enters  and  sadly  lays  before  him  a  statement 
from  the  bank,  showing  an  overdraft  of  $900  for  the  last  payroll.  This  is 
especially  ominous,  as  another  payroll  is  due  in  two  weeks.  Mr.  A.  greatly 
dislikes  to  shut  down  the  factory.  It  constitutes  the  chief  means  of  support 
for  the  town  of  2,500  inhabitants.  A  severe  winter  is  at  hand,  and  it  would 
work  great  hardship  upon  many  families  to  throw  his  force  out  of  work  at 
this  time.  Besides,  to  close  the  factory  would  be  disadvantageous  to  the 
business  itself  in  more  ways  than  one. 

As  Mr.  A.  studies  the  situation  in  all  its  phases,  he  sees  thalt  it  is  not 
perfectly  hopeless.  He  has  buildings  and  grounds  worth  $75,000,  machinery 
and  equipment  worth  $30,000 — all  in  good  condition.  His  books  show  bills 
receivable,  amounting  to  about  $10,000,  but  it  should  be  said  in  explanation 
of  this  that  he  fears  to  collect  any  part  of  it  by  pressure,  inasmuch  as  it  has 
been  his  father’s  policy  to  be  very  lenient  with  his  customers,  and  since 
patronage  has  already  fallen  off  so  markedly  within  the  past  year,  he  dares 
not  risk  any  more  defection  by  drastic  collection  proceedings.  Perhaps  his 
most  valuable  asset  is  the  “Excelsior”  trade-mark  and  the  untarnished 
reputation  of  the  house.  This  and  other  features  of  the  situation  give 
him  encouragement,  and  he  seeks  the  best  course  to  follow. 

There  are  several  ways  in  which  this  situation  might  be  met.  Describe 
briefly  all  the  solutions  you  can  think  of,  any  one  or  all  of  which  miglht  be 
used  not  only  (i)  to  meet  the  present  crisis,  but  also  (2)  to  put  the  business 
on  a  good  running  basis. 

Directions :  “Study  the  contents  of  this  paper  carefully  and  obey  the 
directions  given  in  the  last  paragraph.  There  is  no  time  limit.” 

Method  of  Scoring:  Caution  was  observed  in  scoring  the 
results  of  this  test,  to  eliminate  any  bias  in  evaluating  answers. 
It  would  plainly  be  unfair  for  the  experimenter  to  set  a  value 
arbitrarily  upon  each  possible  solution,  as  such  evaluation  would 
be  based  upon  wider  experience  than  that  possessed  by  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  group  tested.  Neither  would  a  mass  judgment  made 
by  financial  experts  furnish  an  adequate  standard.  The  fairest 
way  seemed  to  be  to  count  all  the  solutions  offered  and  to  grade 
each  paper  with  respect  to  the  judgment  of  the  total  group.  This 
was  accomplished  by  tabulating  every  solution  offered  and  count¬ 
ing  the  number  of  times  it  was  offered.  The  number  of  different 


44 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


solutions  offered  was  46.  Each  of  these  was  mentioned  from  i 
to  56  times  by  the  68  persons  who  took  the  test  the  first  year. 
For  example,  58  persons  suggested  “advertising  campaign” 
along  modern  lines” ;  45  suggested  “mortgage  some  property” ; 
one  person  suggested  that  the  factory  be  closed  temporarily,  etc. 
The  46  solutions  were  offered  altogether  363  times.  In  order 
to  grade  on  a  basis  of  100,  100  was  divided  by  363,  leaving  .275 
as  a  unit.  It  was  then  easy  to  evaluate  the  different  solutions  by 
multiplying  the  number  of  times  each  was  mentioned,  by  .275. 
Thus  the  reply  “advertising  campaign”  received  a  value  of  15.9; 
“mortgage  property,”  12.4;  “close  factory,  .275,  etc.  Each 
paper  was  then  scored  by  crediting  each  solution  with  the  value 
which  the  combined  judgments  of  the  entire  group  placed  upon  it. 


^^AMB 


Test 


Highest 

Lowest 

^Average 


Score 

Dev;  — 


Dev.  + 

3cr  - 


2<r 


Av. 


Numbers 

Checked 


100 

46 

69.2 


IE 


1£JL 


Numbers 

Heard 


10 

7 

8.4 


1<T  --  12.1-  -  1.0 


Objects 

Swn 


10 

5 

7.6 


“Ideas” 

Reproduced 

Immediately 

fromHearing 


88 

30 

71.0 


1.2 


Ditto  after 
2  Weeks 


91 

0 

56.2 


4^ 


11.1-  -  23.7-  -  14.0 


Ditto  from 
Sight  Imme¬ 
diately 


93 

31 

77.2 


SA 


Ditto  after 
2  Weeks 


100 

0 

63.9 


4^ 


Ml 


24.0 


8 


Loss  in  5 


0 

73 

15.8 


19  0 


Loss  in  6 


0 

85 

16.1 


10 


Opposites 


11 


Constant 

Increment 


34  sec 

iil 


LQ^ 


18.8 


73  sec 
290  “ 

139.7  “ 


3$. 


.£a»7 


12 


Instructions 

Printed 


37  sec, 
184  “ 

110.9  “ 


io£L 


fO.<J 


13 


Instructions 

Oral 


19  sec 
194  “ 

58.2  “ 


21 


41.2-  -  33.8-  -  28.4 


14 


P 

;Words 

Built 


15 


33 

11 

21.4 


M. 


ILlL 


Sentences 

Built 


12 

3 

6.6 


4.9 


16 


Business 

Ingenuity 


60 

14 

35.9 


41. 


17 


U1 


18 


19 


1.8 


10.2 


20 


H-flU+HIfl-H  mi|l-H4H-ll+|l-hi41 


Name 


Name 


CHAPTER  IV 


Psychological  Norms  for  College  Students 

Before  employing  this  series  of  tests  for  purposes  of  practical 
diagnosis  it  was  obviously  necessary  to  establish  norms  of  per¬ 
formance.  The  figures  for  such  norms  were  obtained  from  the 
records  of  the  first  group  to  whom  the  tests  were  given.  As 
described  in  Chapter  II,  forty  students  were  found  who  had  com¬ 
plete  records,  and  the  averages  and  medians  for  this  group  are 
shown  in  Table  I. 


TABLE  I 

Average  and  Median  Score  made  in  each  test  by  40  subjects.i^ 
No. 


Average 

m.v. 

Median 

I 

69.2 

10.3 

71.5 

2 

8.4 

.8 

8 

3 

7.6 

.9 

7 

4 

71.0 

8.2 

74 

5 

56.2 

18.6 

61 

6 

77.2 

10.5 

79-5 

7 

63-9 

20.1 

63-5 

8 

15.8 

15.0 

9 

9 

16.1 

iS-4 

8.5 

10 

52.6 

8.8 

530 

II 

1397 

32.0 

1350 

12 

110.9 

26.7 

105.5 

13 

58.2 

17.6 

54-5 

14 

21.4 

4.1 

22 

15 

6.6 

1-4 

7 

16 

35-9 

8.6 

37-5 

In  view  of  the  practical  use  to  which  the  records  were  to  be  put, 
it  was  desired  to  present  each  student’s  record  in  graphic  form 
Accordingly  a  chart  was  arranged  (see  opposite  page),  which 
provided  for  graphic  representation  and  at  the  same  time  gave 
means  of  combining  the  scores  in  the  several  tests  so  as  to  fur¬ 
nish  a  figure  representative  of  the  student’s  standing  in  all  com¬ 
bined.  Accompanying  each  graphic  record  were  remarks  of  an 
interpretative  nature,  for  in  addition  to  the  numerical  results 

For  further  information  regarding  the  distribution  of  these  measures, 
see  chart  for  individual  records  showing  highest  and  lowest  scores  in 
each  test. 


46 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


obtained  by  psychological  examination,  it  is  also  possible  to 
secure  much  knowledge  concerning  the  mental  characteristics  of 
an  individual  which  are  not  expressible  in  numerical  terms,  but 
nevertheless  are  of  considerable  value  in  understanding  his  case. 

As  already  stated,  the  graphic  chart  was  arranged  with  two 
ends  in  view — first,  to  permit  a  clear  and  easily  read  presentation 
of  the  student’s  standing  in  each  test,  in  other  words,  to  show 
the  distribution  of  his  mental  traits;  second,  to  furnish  a  net 
score  combining  his  standing  in  all  the  tests  according  to  the  third 
requirement  set  by  Stern.  The  chart  was  constructed  on  the 
following  plan:  Each  test,  numbered  from  i  to  i6,  is  given  a 
vertical  column.  Below  the  name  of  each  test  appears  the  high¬ 
est  score  made,  the  lowest  score,  and  the  average.  Below  this,  is 
inserted  the  score  of  the  individual,  and  below  this,  the  amount 
of  his  deviation  from  the  average,  either  plus  or  minus,  according 
as  the  deviation  is  meritorious  or  the  opposite.  Two-thirds  of 
the  distance  down  the  vertical  column  is  a  figure  which  represents 
the  Standard  Deviation  for  the  measures.  Approximately  in  the 
middle  of  the  chart  is  a  heavy  horizontal  line.  This  represents 
the  average  and  is  the  base  line  from  which  all  deviations  are 
measured.  Each  vertical  column  is  divided  into  three  large  divi¬ 
sions  on  either  side  of  the  average  line,  and  each  of  these  divisions 
has  three  subdivisions  which  are  again  divided  into  five  steps 
each.  The  gross  divisions  represent  one,  two  and  three  times  the 
Standard  Deviation.  An  illustration  will  make  clear  the  use  of 
the  Chart.  Suppose  a  subject  scores  89  in  test  No.  i.  This 
means  a  deviation  of  20  above  the  average  (69.2).  Twenty  is 
once  the  Standard  Deviation  (12.1)  and  two-thirds  as  much 
again.  Hence  one  large  division  is  marked  off  and  two-thirds  of 
another.  Counting  in  terms  of  the  smallest  subdivisions,  the 
standing  of  the  individual  in  the  test  is  twenty-five  units  of 
deviation  above  the  average.  These  units  are  equal  throughout 
the  series  of  tests,  for  the  Standard  Deviation^®  bears  the  same 

20  The  Standard  Deviation  cr  was  used  in  this  case  according  to  the 

/  j  \2 

formula  a—  — —  where  d=  deviation  from  the  average,  2=  the  sum  and 
n— I 

n=  the  number  of  cases  (40).  Another  measure  of  variability  could  prob¬ 
ably  be  used  as  well.  The  chief  aim  is  to  have  a  relation  that  is  constant 
between  average  and  individual  measure  in  all  tests. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  47 


relation  theoretically  to  the  average  score  in  each  test.  The  net 
score  for  each  individual  is  obtained  by  adding  the  units  of  devia¬ 
tion  above  the  average  and  those  below  the  average,  and  subtract¬ 
ing  the  smaller  from  the  larger  sum.  The  number  thus  secured  is 
the  plus  or  minus  score  of  the  individual  and  gives  numerical 
basis  for  designating  his  rank  in  the  group.  It  should  be  kept  in 
mind  that  these  quantitative  expressions  of  performances  in  the 
tests  serve  in  no  way  to  express  the  mentality  of  the  individual  in 
absolute  terms.  The  net  score  is  merely  a  resultant  value  of  all 
the  tests  in  the  series,  and  meets  the  third  requirement  set  by 
Stern.  In  its  essential  nature,  however,  it  is  only  a  relative 
measure  and  places  the  individual  only  with  respect  to  the  other 
members  of  his  group.  The  ranking  of  the  subjects  on  the  basis 
of  net  score  is  shown  in  Table  II. 

Table  II 

Net  Scores  representing  standing  in  i6  tests  pooled  for  40  individuals. 


-f259 

—  14 

+135 

—  18 

+119 

—  29 

+  106 

—  30 

+  81 

—  31 

T  75 

—  39 

+  73 

—  45 

+  67 

—  53 

+  65 

—  61 

+  65 

—  66 

T  64 

—  77 

-f  63 

—  82 

+  44 

— 102 

-f  41 

—107 

+  41 

— 116 

+  32 

— 131 

+  31 

— 160 

+  20 

—237 

+  18 

—255 

+  17 

+  3 

These  net  scores  when  arranged  from  highest  to  lowest  follow 
the  normal  curve  of  distribution,  twenty-one  being  above  and 
nineteen,  below  the  average.  The  extremes  are  also  approxi¬ 
mately  at  the  same  distance  from  the  average.  In  examining  the 
individual  charts,  it  is  found  that  they  range  from  conditions 
where  the  deviations  in  all  the  tests  are  almost  entirely  above 
the  average  to  conditions  where  the  deviations  are  practically  all 


48 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


below  the  average.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  individual 
charts,  however,  show  the  deviations  to  be  partly  above  and  partly 
below  the  average.  This  is  as  might  be  expected  in  view  of  what 
is  known  about  the  distribution  of  mental  traits  in  most  indi¬ 
viduals.  Inasmuch  as  it  is  impossible  to  present  all  the  individual 
charts,  three  samples  are  shown — representing  the  three  types 
of  distribution  (p.  45). 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  construction  of  the  chart  assumes  that 
the  tests  are  equal  in  their  demands  upon  intelligence  on  the 
average. This  does  not  mean,  however,  that  memory  for 
digits,  for  example,  is  equal  to  speed  of  giving  logical  associa¬ 
tions,  but  that  the  amount  of  deviation  proportional  to  the  Stand¬ 
ard  Deviation  in  one  test  is  equal  to  the  same  amount  of  deviation 
proportional  to  the  Standard  Deviation  in  another.  This  assump¬ 
tion  seems  justified  in  view  of  the  relativity  of  the  measures,  and 
the  fact  that  the  unit  of  measure  is  based  upon  the  Standard  De¬ 
viation  for  all  tests,  which  presumably  holds  a  constant  relation 
to  the  several  averages.  Another  assumption  on  which  the  chart 
is  based  is  that  excellence  is  always  to  be  found  on  the  plus  side 
of  the  base  line.  It  assumes,  for  instance,  that  to  have  a  poor 
memory  for  objects  visually  sensed  is  a  psychical  dereliction.  This 
may  appear  to  be  unwarranted,  inasmuch  as  a  person  may  have 
poor  ability  to  reproduce  what  he  has  visually  apprehended,  and 
still  display  marked  intelligence.  He  may,  for  example,  have 
habituated  himself  to  some  other  form  of  sense  impression.  A 
similar  assumption  penalizes  slowness  of  response,  making  it 
appear  that  the  individual  who  is  slower  than  the  average  has  less 
intelligence,  whereas  some  psychological  doctrine  regards  speed 
as  purely  a  matter  of  individual  variation.  These  practical  ques¬ 
tions  involve  weighty  problems  regarding  the  theory  of  intelli¬ 
gence  and  this  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  them.  Still  it  is  perti¬ 
nent  to  suggest  that  in  the  long  run,  for  meeting  practical  situa- 

21  For  discussions  of  similar  methods  of  amalgamating  scores  see  R.  S. 
Woodworth.  Statistical  Method,  Psychol.  Rev.  19,  1912,  pp.  97-123;  A.  P. 
Weiss,  A.  Modified  Slide-rule  and  the  Index  Method  in  Individual  Measure¬ 
ments,  J.  of  Educ.  Psychol.  5,  Nov.  1914;  A.  R.  Abelson,  The  Measurement 
of  Mental  Ability  of  Backward  Children.  Brit.  J.  of  P.,  1911,  4,  268-314; 
W.  Stern,  Differentielle  Psychologie,  Barth,  Leipsig,  1911,  p.  17  fT. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  49 


tions  in  life,  the  most  serviceable  type  of  mind  is  that  which  shows 
excellence  in  each  of  these  divers  powers.  Furthermore,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  trend  of  thought  and  practice  regarding  mental  tests, 
such  varieties  of  excellence  are  provided  for  by  the  use  of  a  large 
number  of  tests,  and  the  increase  in  the  number  of  different 
traits  tested  minimizes  the  danger  of  specialization.  This  intro¬ 
duces  what  Stern  characterizes  as  a  “systematic  compensation”^^ 
mechanism  which  provides  for  qualitative  differences  in  the  same 
degree  of  intelligence.  Some  justification  for  this  view  is  fur¬ 
nished  by  the  fact  that  the  measures  in  Table  II  conform  to  the 
normal  curve  of  distribution;  and  further  justification  for  the 
method  will  appear  when  the  results  of  the  pooled  tests  are 
compared  with  judgments  of  mental  ability. 

Inter-test  Correlations 

In  attempting  to  show  the  relations  among  the  results  of  a 
series  of  tests  the  method  of  correlation  has  been  much  employed. 
The  results  of  different  tests  are  compared  and  the  degree  of  cor¬ 
respondence  is  stated  in  terms  of  a  “correlation  coefficient”  which 
is  the  “measure  of  the  tendency  towards  concomitant  variation 
exhibited  by  two  series  of  phenomena  and  hence  throws  some 
light  upon  the  causal  relations  of  these  phenomena.”^^  Adopting 
this  method,  a  number  of  correlations  were  computed  between 
results  of  tests  that  might  be  expected  to  be  closely  related.  The 
correlation  coefficients  are  shown  in  Table  III.  Considering  a 
correlation  high  only  when  its  coefficient  is  four  or  five  times  as 
large  as  the  P.  E.,  a  significant  positive  correlation  appears  only 
between  ( i )  memory  for  meaningful  material  seen  and  heard, 
(2)  between  the  first  and  second  reproductions  of  this  material, 
and  (3)  between  the  Opposites  and  Constant  Increment  tests. 
Further  inter-test  correlations  were  abandoned  because  at  this 
stage  of  the  work  it  seemed  more  profitable  to  direct  the  major 
attention  to  other  phases  of  the  problem.  Other  recent  investi¬ 
gators  have  evinced  considerable  dissatisfaction  with  dependence 
upon  inter-test  correlations  in  judging  the  validity  of  a  series  of 

22  op.  cit.,  pp.  21,  22. 

23  Wm.  Brown,  The  Essentials  of  Mental  Measurements,  Cambridge,  Uni¬ 
versity  Press,  Cambridge,  1911.  p.  47. 


50 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


tests. It  is  clear  that  a  high  degree  of  correlation  should  not  be 
expected  if  the  series  is  a  good  series  calling  for  varied  mental 
processes.  In  the  present  series  some  of  the  tests  stress  memory 
of  various  kinds,  others,  reasoning  processes,  some  call  chiefly 
for  display  of  originality  and  initiative  in  various  fields,  others 
emphasize  sense  differences.  They  vary  also  in  amount  of 
motor  activity  involved.  For  these  reasons  if  a  high  degree  of  cor¬ 
relation  were  found  among  all  the  tests,  their  value  might  be  seri¬ 
ously  questioned ;  one  would  be  inclined  to  doubt  that  they  reached 
different  phases  of  mentality.  Therefore,  in  a  series  such  as  this, 
a  certain  variety  is  a  virtue,  first  because  it  helps  to  give  a  more 
comprehensive  view  of  the  qualitative  distribution  of  mental  traits 
in  any  individual;  second,  because  when  a  person  holds  a  de¬ 
cidedly  high  or  low  position  in  several  tests,  the  reliability  of  the 
measures  increases  with  every  deviation  that  follows  the  gen¬ 
eral  trend. 

Table  III 

Inter-test  Correlations  Camputed  by  the  Product-  Moment 


Method^s  (Raw) 

r.  P.E. 

Number-checking  and  Hard  Directions  (printed)  . oi  .10 

Numbers  Heard  and  Objects  Seen  . 09  .10 

Numbers  Heard  and  Directions  (oral)  (accuracy)  .  — .05  .10 

Numbers  Heard  and  Logical  Material  Heard  .  — .09  .10 

Objects  Seen  and  Logical  Material  Seen  .  — .13  .10 

Logical  Material  Heard  and  ditto  seen  (immediately) . 26  .10 

Logical  Material  Heard  and  ditto  seen  (deferred)  . 54  .07 

Loss  in  Logical  Material  Heard  and  ditto  Seen . 54  .07 

Logical  Material  Heard  (first  and  second  reproductions) . 49  0.8 

Logical  Material  Seen  (first  and  second  reproductions) . 45  .08 

Opposites  Easy  and  Hard  (Speed)  . 46  .08 

Opposites  Easy  and  Hard  (accuracy)  . 51  .07 

Opposites  Easy  (speed)  and  combined  Index . 84  .03 

Opposites  Easy  (index)  and  combined  Index . 84  .03 


24  Cf.  Abelson,  op.  cit.  In  a  series  of  tests  similar  to  these  this  author 
found  the  inter-test  correlations  of  little  interpretative  value,  and  was  obliged 
to  use  other  means  of  evaluation,  employing  Spearman’s  valuable  method  of 
pooling.  This  author  concluded  that  the  differences  among  the  tests  are 
negligible  anyway,  and  that  they  are  “about  equally  accurate  measurements 
of  general  ability.”  p.  302. 

Also  cf.  E.  Webb,  Character  and  Intelligence,  Brit.  J.  of  P.,  Mon.  Sup. 
Vol.  I,  No.  3,  P.  83. 

S(xy) 


25  According  to  the  formula  r= 


no-j  o-j 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  51 


Opposites  Hard  (index)  and  combined  Index . 86  .03 

Opposites  Easy  (speed)  and  Constant  Increment  (speed) . 40  .08 

Opposites  Easy  (accuracy)  and  Constant  Increment  (accuracy)  .10  .10 

Opposites  Combined  Index  and  Constant  Increment  Index  ...  .38  .09 

Hard  Directions  Printed  (Speed  with  accuracy)  . 36  .09 

Hard  Directions  Printed  (Speed  with  index)  . 84  .03 

Hard  Directions  Printed  and  oral  (speed)  . 23  .10 

Hard  Directions  Printed  and  oral  (accuracy)  .  — .02  .10 

Hard  Directions  Printed  Index  and  Oral  Index . 23  .10 

Hard  Directions  Oral  (speed  and  Index)  . 95  .01 

Hard  Directions  Printed  (speed  and  accuracy)  .  — .11  .10 

Word-building  and  Sentence-building  . 05  .10 

Word-building  and  Business  Ingenuity  . 10  .10 

Sentence-building  and  Business  Ingenuity  .  — .02  .10 


Abandoning  the  search  for  the  significance  of  inter-test  rela¬ 
tionships,  further  observation  of  the  measures  reveals  a  peculiar 
phenomenon  of  mental  life.  It  has  been  found  by  several  investi¬ 
gators  that  measures  secured  from  several  tests,  though  singly 
not  correlating  highly  with  other  series  of  measurements,  never¬ 
theless,  when  amalgamated  may  correlate  highly  with  other  series. 
This  phenomenon  has  been  noted  and  discussed  by  Abelson,^® 
who,  by  a  process  of  pooling,  showed  that  averages  from  a 
number  of  tests  which  taken  singly,  showed  little  correlation 
with  other  measures  of  ability,  nevertheless,  when  pooled,  cor¬ 
related  with  a  high  magnitude.  As  explained  earlier  in  the 
chapter  the  method  of  graphic  representation  furnished  a  way  to 
combine  the  scores  made  by  an  individual  in  the  several  tests,  and 
to  express  the  standing  in  all  the  tests  in  a  single  net-score.  The 
net-scores  made  by  the  forty  persons  in  the  experimental  group 
were  correlated  with  their  scores  in  each  of  the  tests  and  it  was 
found  that  much  higher  correlations  obtained  than  between  the 
scores  of  the  separate  tests.  The  results  appear  in  Table  IV. 

Table  IV 

Correlation  of  Standings  in  Each  Test  with  Standings  in  Net  Score. 

(Method  of  Rank  Differences^^) 


P  P.E.28 

Test  No.  7  Logical  Material  Seen  Deferred  . 60  .07 

“  “  10  Opposites  . 53  .08 

“  “  12  Hard  Directions  (printed)  . 49  .08 


2®  Op.  cit. 

,  r  .  6S(d)2 

2'^  According  to  the  formula,  p=i - ; - ^ - 

n(nxm — i 

28  According  to  the  formula  P-E.==‘7°^3(^  P_) 

|/n 


52 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


“  3  Objects  Seen  . 48  .08 

“  9  Loss  in  Logical  Material  Seen  . 47  .09 

“  5  Logical  Material  Heard  (deferred)  . 45  .09 

“  14  Word-building  . 45  .09 

“  8  Loss  in  Logical  Material  Heard  . 43  .09 

"  15  Sentence-building  . 42  .09 

“  II  Constant  Increment  . 38  .10 

“  16  Business  Ingenuity  . 33  .10 

“  6  Logical  Material  (immediate)  . 29  .10 

“  2  Numbers  Heard  . 27  .10 

“  13  Hard  Directions  Oral  . 23  .11 

“  4  Logical  Material  Heard  (immediate)  . 23  .11 

“  I  Number-checking  . 18  .11 


In  view  of  the  uncertainty  attending  the  meaning  of  inter-test 
correlations,  it  seemed  wise,  as  Stern^®  suggests,  “to  seek  the 
means  of  gauging  the  tests  in  some  criterion  that  lies  outside  of 
the  experiment.”  As  has  already  been  shown,  the  conditions 
surrounding  this  investigation  furnished  unusual  opportunity  for 
linking  up  the  results  with  the  other  relations  of  the  student.  Of 
course  much  of  the  data  gathered  by  the  college  office  could 
hardly  be  reduced  to  mathematical  terms.  For  example,  it 
would  be  difficult  so  to  treat  judgments  of  employers  and  teachers 
and  the  information  regarding  social,  and  physical  activities. 
These  were  for  the  most  part  in  descriptive  terms.  One  group 
of  extra-laboratory  measures  readily  available,  however,  con¬ 
sists  of  university  grades  and  they  will  next  be  considered. 

Correlations  between  College  Grades  and  Results  of  Tests 

The  index  of  correlation  between  standings  in  university 
grades  for  the  year  1913- 14  and  standings  in  the  psychological 
examination  was  found  to  be  .44  (P.  E.  .09)  using  the  Pearson 
method  adapted  to  rank  differences.  Though  this  is  a  positive 
correlation  it  can  not  be  considered  high.  In  terms  of  percentage, 
of  the  20  individuals  in  the  better  half  of  the  ranking  according 
to  grades,  13  or  65%  are  also  in  the  better  half  of  the  ranking 
according  to  scores  in  the  tests.  The  use  of  the  same  tests  with 
the  1914  Freshmen  gives  opportunity  for  further  correlation  with 
university  grades.  This  group  furnishes  40  complete  records. 
The  scores  made  in  the  tests  correlate  with  grades  for  the  year 

29  Op.  cif.,  p.  1 15. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  53 


19 14- 1 5  by  .20  (P.  E.  .11)  using  the  Pearson  method  adapted 
to  rank  differences.  Of  the  20  individuals  in  the  better  half  of 
the  ranking  according  to  grades,  ii  or  55%  are  in  the  better 
half  of  the  ranking  according  to  the  tests. 

These  results  give  point  to  the  remark  that  the  correlation 
between  intelligence  as  measured  by  tests  and  academic  stand¬ 
ing  is  not  so  high  as  is  popularly  supposed.  An  analysis  of  the 
conditions  of  university  life  shows  that  many  other  factors  be¬ 
sides  intelligence  enter  in  to  determine  class-room  standing.  One 
prominent  source  of  error  now  under  experimental  scrutiny  is 
the  subjectivity  of  instructors’  gradings.  Another  large  group  of 
factors  may  be  traced  to  the  student  himself.  Some  of  these  have 
to  do  with  will  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term.  If  a  student 
shows  decided  ability  in  psychological  tests  and  his  university 
work  is  poor  it  may  be  found  that  his  faults  are  in  the  direction 
of  moral  qualities.  Or  if  a  student  achieves  only  moderate  suc¬ 
cess  in  the  tests  but  does  distinctly  good  work  in  the  university, 
then  “there  is  a  probability  .  .  .  that  this  pupil’s  strength  is  to 
be  sought  primarily  in  qualities  of  character  and  will.”®” 

Still  other  conditions  affecting  the  student’s  grades  are  social 
surroundings.  Especially  is  this  true  when  students  live  at  home, 
and  in  the  case  of  a  city  institution,  this  becomes  a  serious  prob¬ 
lem.  Likewise  economic  conditions  affect  the  student’s  grades. 
If  he  must  earn  his  way  through  the  university,  it  is  manifest  that 
his  academic  standing  will  be  affected  by  the  fact.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  he  has  too  much  money  at  his  disposal  there  is  danger 
that  his  university  work  will  suffer.  A  final  consideration  is  the 
physical  condition  of  the  student..  His  bodily  well-being  colors 
largely  his  university  work. 

When  one  considers  the  complex  conditions  of  the  marking 
system  in  college  or  university,  one  is  not  surprised  to  find  low 
positive  correlation  between  the  results  of  psychological  ex¬ 
aminations  and  college  grades.  This  lack  of  correspondence 
blights  some  of  the  hopes  cherished  for  psychological  tests — the 
hopes  that  they  may  serve  as  entrance  examinations,  to  fore¬ 
tell  what  kind  of  college  work  a  student  will  do.  Psycho¬ 
s'*  Stern,  op.  cit.,  p.  64. 


54 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


logical  tests  are  meeting  with  such  favor,  and  are  prov¬ 
ing  so  useful  as  indicators  of  mental  ability  that  one  can  readily 
understand  the  desire  to  use  them  to  sift  out  the  undesirable 
applicants  at  colleges  and  universities.  Such  an  arrangement 
seems  especially  desirable  when  one  considers  the  large  number  of 
students  who  are  dismissed  at  the  end  of  their  first  term  in  col¬ 
lege.  In  view  of  the  deplorable  waste  involved  in  thus  accepting 
students  only  to  be  dismissed  as  incompetent,  it  would  be  a  great 
boon  to  humanity  if  psychological  examinations  could  thus  be  em¬ 
ployed.  The  gain  would  be  both  to  the  university  and  to  the  in¬ 
dividual.  Such  sanguine  expectations,  however,  will  probably  not 
be  realized,  for  even  with  a  perfectly  flawless  series  of  psycholo¬ 
gical  tests,  there  is  one  group  of  factors  that  can  not  at  present  be 
measured — those  things  designated  moral  and  volitional  quali¬ 
ties.®^  A  student  might  prove  superlatively  bright  in  his  entrance 
examination,  and  still  fail  in  academic  work  because  he  was  not 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  allurements  of  extra-curriculum 
attractions.  Furthermore,  prophecies  concerning  the  future 
would  also  be  out  of  place  because  of  the  multitude  of  other  fac¬ 
tors  discussed  mentioned  above.  In  truth,  however,  it  must  be 
pointed  out  that  the  present  type  of  entrance  examinations,  based 
as  it  is,  on  strictly  academic  grounds,  is  not  any  more  infallible  in 
sifting  out  the  undesirables  as  is  evidenced  by  the  number  of 
eliminations  that  occur  among  Freshmen.  It  is  not  at  all  impossi¬ 
ble  that  a  system  might  be  evolved  that  would  employ  both 
academic  and  psychological  tests,  and  while  the  combination 
would  not  be  absolutely  perfect  in  designating  fitness  for  college 
or  university  work,  it  should  nevertheless  be  better'  than  either 
kind  alone. 

Correlation  with  Estimated  Intelligence. 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  value  of  the  tests  by  another  means, 
it  was  decided  to  rank  the  students  according  to  their  estimated 
intelligence.  The  method  employed  was  as  follows :  The  stu¬ 
dents  in  the  first  experimental  group  of  forty  were  ranked  ac- 

31  The  recent  work  of  Webb  {op.  cit.)  suggests  that  future  developments 
may  disclose  means  of  measuring  some  of  these  heretofore  elusive  Character¬ 
istics. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  55 


cording  to  their  University  grades,  then  the  dean  was  asked  to 
correct  this  ranking  on  the  basis  of  all  the  information  at  his  dis¬ 
posal,  so  that  the  arrangement  should  represent  standing  in  intelli¬ 
gence  as  purely  as  it  was  possible  to  abstract  it.  The  question 
asked  was,  if  all  these  students  had  an  equal  chance  in  other 
respects,  how  would,  they  rank  in  practical  intelligence — intelli¬ 
gence  being  regarded  as  ability  to  adapt  one’s  self  to  new 
situations 

These  two  series  of  rankings  correlate  by  .57  (P.  E.  .05) 
using  the  Pearson  method  adapted  to  rank  differences.  In  terms 
of  percentage,  of  the  20  students  in  the  better  half  of  the  ranking 
according  to  estimated  intelligence,  13  or  65%  are  in  the  corres¬ 
ponding  half  of  the  ranking  according  to  the  tests.  It  would 
have  been  desirable  to  make  a  similar  comparison  between  these 
two  measures  of  the  1914  Freshrnen  but  the  dean  felt  that  one 
year  of  acquaintance  was  too  short  to  permit  satisfactory  estima¬ 
tion  of  intelligence.  Even  with  the  first  group  of  students, 
though  the  acquaintance  at  time  of  making  the  estimates  was  in 
no  case  less  than  one  year  and  in  some  cases  extended  over  two 
and  three  years,  still  considerable  perplexity  was  experienced  in 
deciding  upon  just  rankings.  One  of  the  factors  inimical  to 
success  in  this  work  is  the  liability  to  bias  by  grades.  Thus  it 
happened  that  office  contact  is  closest  with  those  students  who 
receive  low  grades.  Quite  without  reference  to  the  other  facts 
of  the  situation  one  is  prone  to  assume  that  such  students  are 
low  in  intelligence.  Other  factors  entering  into  estimations  of 
intelligence  are  differences  in  length  of  acquaintanceship,  re¬ 
ticence  on  the  part  of  individuals  and  the  briefness  of  contact 
with  the  students.  In  spite  of  these  well-recognized  artefacts, 
however,  the  correlation  is  quite  decidedly  significant.  It  agrees 
closely  with  that  found  by  Abelson^^  who,  after  pooling  the 
results  of  nine  tests  and  correlating  them  with  estimates  of  intelli¬ 
gence,  found  a  coefficient  of  .60  for  girls  and  .56  for  boys. 

The  main  purpose  of  this  report  is  not  to  advocate  the  adoption 
of  this  particular  series  of  tests  for  use  in  educational  guidance. 

32  Stern,  op.  cit.,  p.  3. 

33  Op.  cit.,  p.  303. 


56 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


Its  prime  concern  is  with  the  establishment  of  a  method.  There¬ 
fore  little  can  be  gained  by  statistical  studies  of  the  tests  alone  or 
in  correlation  with  one  or  two  external  factors.  The  hypothesis 
is  that  the  entire  individual  must  be  taken  into  consideration  and 
that  psychological  measurements  are  an  integral  part  of  this  all¬ 
round  examination — not  as  absolute  or  self-substantiating  values, 
but  as  measures  coordinate  in  interpretative  value  with  measures 
of  the  student  from  other  aspects.  In  support  of  such  a  conten¬ 
tion  the  best  proof  that  can  be  adduced  will  consist  in  the  demon¬ 
stration  of  the  usefulness  of  the  tests  in  actual  administrative 
situations.  What  service  do  they  render  in  the  concrete  situations 
that  arise  in  administering  the  education  of  individuals  under 
conditions  such  as  those  described?  The  report  of  this  practical 
trial  of  the  tests  will  be  given  in  Chapter  VI.  First,  however, 
should  be  pointed  out  the  possible  uses  of  such  tests  with  various 
college  groups,  and  this  will  be  assayed  in  Chapter  V. 


CHAPTER  V 


Comparison  between  College  Groups 

One  of  the  most  desirable  benefits  of  a  standard  system  of 
psychological  examinations  for  college  students  is  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  making  comparisons  between  various  groups  of  stu¬ 
dents.  It  is  very  desirable  to  measure  the  psychological  differ¬ 
ences  between  various  entering  classes,  between  various  graduat¬ 
ing  classes,  to  measure  the  differences  between  the  performance  of 
a  group  during  the  Freshman  year  and  performances  at  later 
stages  of  advancement,  between  students  of  various  colleges,  de¬ 
partments,  etc.  The  effects  of  certain  branches  of  the  curriculum 
might  also  be  studied,  as  well  as  the  results  of  the  teaching  of 
various  instructors. 

The  data  at  hand  throw  some  light  upon  one  question  of 
immediate  interest — namely,  the  determination  by  objective 
means,  of  the  effect  of  university  training  upon  the  mental 
capacity  of  a  group  of  students.  In  order  to  investigate  this 
problem  the  members  of  the  1913  group  who  were  still  in  the 
university  and  who  varied  around  the  Sophomore  point  by  no 
more  than  three  months,  were  retested  in  1914-15.  The  group 
consisted  of  21  persons;  16  were  men  and  5,  women.  The 
average  age  on  October  i,  1914  was  20.0  years.  On  March  i, 
approximately  a  year  from  their  former  testing  as  Freshmen, 
these  students  were  called  together  and  examined  with  tests 
Nos.  I,  2,  14,  15  and  16.  Tests  Nos.  10  and  ii  were  given 
individually  during  the  week  March  1-6.  It  was  impossible  to 
use  the  other  nine  tests  of  the  series  for  this  second  testing 
since  there  was  danger  that  memories  held  over  from  the  pre¬ 
vious  year  might  be  of  service.  The  scores  made  by  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  this  group  at  two  stages  of  development  are  shown  in 
Table  V,  together  with  the  average  scores  made  by  the  same 
individuals  as  Freshmen. 


58 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


Table  V 


Average  Scores  in  7  Tests  Made  by  21  Freshmen  (1913) 


Test  No. 

I 

2 

10 

II 

14 

15 

16 

Av.  score 

72.2 

8.2 

52.8 

141.5 

21.6 

6.6 

37-2 

M.  V. 

8.8 

.8 

4.0 

34-8 

4-9 

14 

8.5 

P.  E.  of  Av. 

1.6 

.2 

■7 

7.4 

.9 

•3 

1-5 

Average  Scores  Made  by  Above 

Group  as 

Sophomores 

(1914) 

Test  No. 

I 

2 

10 

II 

14 

15 

16 

Av.  Score 

75.8 

8.2 

46.0 

124.9 

21.9 

9.6 

40.3 

M.  V. 

13-5 

i.o 

7.8 

32.4 

4.0 

1-4 

7.0 

P.  E.  of  Av. 

2.0 

.2 

1.4 

6.0 

•7 

•3 

1.2 

Absolute  Gain 

3-6 

0.0 

6.8 

16.6 

.3 

30 

3-1 

Percent  Gain 

5-0 

0.0 

12.9 

11.7 

.1 

4-5 

8.0 

P.  E.  of  Diff. 

2.5 

1-5 

9-5 

1. 1 

1-3 

1.9 

In  the  results  of  the  second  year’s  testing,  there  is  no  score  be¬ 
low  the  corresponding  score  for  the  previous  year.  Improvement 
is  shown  in  every  test  except  in  Test  No.  2  (Numbers  Heard). 
As  a  measure  of  the  reliability  of  the  difference  between  the  two 
series  of  averages,  it  is  necessary  to  refer  to  the  probable  errors 
of  the  differences.  These  are  found  to  be  less  than  the  difference 
in  every  case  except  that  of  Test  No.  14,  showing  that  most  of 
the  differences  can  not  be  accounted  for  by  mere  chance.  The 
certainty  of  a  true  difference  is  further  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  the  differences  between  the  two  series  of  scores  are  in  the 
same  direction  for  all  the  tests. 

The  data  do  not  show  whether  the  improvement  is  due  to  in¬ 
fluence  of  maturity  or  to  general  training.  This  question  awaits 
investigation  by  use  of  control  groups. 

It  is  hardly  possible  from  this  limited  amount  of  data  to  make 
a  statement  regarding  the  relative  improvement  in  different 
mental  traits.  Attention  is  called,  however,  to  the  unchanged 
score  in  Numbers  Heard  a  rote  memory  activity,  which  seemed 
less  susceptible  to  influence  by  the  factors  operating  during  the 
year,  whether  they  be  related  to  maturing  of  ability  or  to  univer¬ 
sity  training. 

The  above  figures  represent  improvement  distributed  among 
the  various  tests.  Another  view  of  this  improvement  may  be 
secured  by  considering  the  net  score  made  by  each  individual 
when  his  scores  in  the  seven  tests  are  pooled.  Comparison  be- 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  59 


tween  these  two  series  of  net  scores  for  the  two  years  shows  a  cor¬ 
relation  of  .88  P.  E.  .03.  This  high  correlation,  indicating  that  the 
individuals  tended  to  keep  the  same  relative  ranking  during  the 
year,  may  signify  two  things.  If  there  were  no  disturbing  fac¬ 
tors,  this  correlation  coefficient  might  represent  a  reliability  co¬ 
efficient  signifying  that  the  tests  give  reliable  measures  of  ability, 
inasmuch  as  a  second  measurement  makes  little  change  in  the 
relative  standings.  There  is  a  disturbing  factor,  however, — lapse 
of  time,  wherein  the  subjects  were  under  university  training 
among  other  environmental  influences.  This  training  had  been 
quite  similar  both  in  quality  and  quantity.  In  view  of  this  homo¬ 
geneity  of  the  group,  then,  the  high  correlation  coefficient  may 
indicate  that  the  members  of  the  group  improved  with  relatively 
equal  amounts. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  entire  series  of  sixteen  tests  could 
not  be  used  for  the  second  testing,  but  it  was  felt  that  all  but 
these  seven  would  be  colored  by  memories  from  the  previous 
year.  This  predicament  shows  that  in  applying  tests  to  this 
problem,  care  should  be  taken  to  choose  tests  that  can  be  re¬ 
peated  without  danger  of  memories  being  held  over  that  might 
be  of  assistance.  In  cases  where  this  is  not  possible,  as  in  logical 
material  to  be  reproduced,  it  will  be  necessary  to  arrange  tests 
that  are  approximately  equal  in  difficulty,  interest-value,  etc. 
Such  tests  await  development  in  psychological  laboratories. 

Another  feature  to  be  developed  is  the  preparation  of  charts 
for  the  presentation  of  individual  records.  It  is  necessasry  to  ar¬ 
range  these  charts  so  as  to  show  not  only  the  relation  of  the 
scores  to  the  average  of  the  group,  but  also  their  relation  to 
records  of  previous  years.  In  the  present  study  only  one  kind 
of  record-blank  was  used — all  norms  with  which  to  compare  the 
individual  records  for  graphic  presentation  being  secured  from 
the  records  of  the  first  experimental  group — predominantly 
Freshmen. 

Considerable  interest  attaches  to  a  comparison  of  the  two 
Freshman  groups  that  have  been  studied,  and  an  attempt  was 
made  to  compare  their  records.  It  was  thought,  however,  that 
such  a  comparison  would  be  valueless  because  the  tests  were 


6o 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


made  during  the  middle  of  the  school  year  (February)  in  the 
case  of  the  first  group,  while  they  were  made  near  the  opening 
of  the  school  year  in  the  case  of  the  latter  group.  This  resulted 
in  making  the  two  groups  different  in  that  the  first  group  had 
been  subjected  to  a  selective  process  and  the  poorer  students,  or 
at  least,  those  with  very  low  grades,  had  been  eliminated  to  some 
extent  at  the  end  of  the  first  cjuarter’s  residence.  Furthermore, 
on  the  supposition  that  a  short  period  of  university  training  may 
produce  improvement  in  general  mental  ability,  the  two  groups 
would  be  otherwise  unec|ual,  the  first  group  having  received  four 
months  of  university  training  of  which  the  second  group  had  not 
had  the  advantage. 

It  should  be  emphasized  that  such  manipulation  of  date  as  that 
just  described  is  not  done  for  the  purpose  of  securing  answers 
to  the  questions  posited  at  the  opening  of  this  chapter.  The 
measures  here  presented  are  too  few  to  permit  such  conclusions. 
The  calculations  have  been  made  merely  to  exhibit  the  uses  of 
the  method  and  to  show  how  such  measures  may  ultimately  serve. 


CHAPTER  VI 


Training  for  Efficiency  in  College 

The  series  of  tests  here  described  is  not  being  urged  as  a  flaw¬ 
less  adjunct  to  university  administration.  The  hypothesis  merely 
sets  forth  the  possibility  that  psychological  tests  may  be  useful 
in  facilitating  the  educational  guidance  of  college  students.  The 
proof  of  this  hypothesis  is  difficult  of  presentation  in  quantitative 
terms.  In  the  first  place  the  results  of  educational  practice  must 
necessarily  await  the  test  of  time  before  they  reach  their  highest 
fruition.  Second,  at  present  there  is  no  accepted  standard  for 
measuring  the  most  important  results  of  education  such  as  im¬ 
provement  in  moral  strength,  power  of  appreciation,  etc.  It  is 
clear,  then,  that  the  value  of  psychological  tests  in  this  field  can 
not  be  expressed  by  a  single  figure,  nor  by  a  set  of  figures.  The 
data  found  in  the  preceding  chapters  are  offered  in  order  to  show 
that  there  is  some  basis  for  favorable  judgment  regarding  the 
method,  and  to  give  some  idea  regarding  the  significance  of  the 
tests  as  a  series.  The  chief  justification  for  the  use  of  the  tests, 
however,  must  be  of  a  pragmatic  nature — must  come  from  the 
help  they  have  given  in  the  guidance  of  college  students  through 
an  individualized  course  of  instruction. 

Before  proceeding  to  an  exposition  of  this  angle  of  the  case, 
another  feature  of  the  plan  must  be  described.  This  consisted 
in  supplementing  the  psychological  examinations  by  a  series  of 
lectures  on  methods  of  study.  These  were  given  to  the  1914 
Freshmen  and  aimed  to  present  economical  and  effective  methods 
of  studying  Freshman  subjects. Methods  of  memorizing  were 
discussed  and  were  applied  specifically  to  the  preparation  of 
lessons  in  German,  history,  public  speaking,  etc.  Other  topics 
considered  were  habits  of  attention,  and  phases  of  the  learning 
process.  Also,  by  way  of  securing  a  clearer  conception  of  the 
learning  process  some  instruction  was  given  in  elementary  neu- 
See  the  author’s  book,  How  To  Use  Your  Mind  (Lippincott). 


62 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITS  ON 


rology.  These  lectures  served  in  some  degree  to  aid  the  students 
in  orienting  themselves  during  the  first  few  weeks  of  trying 
adjustment  to  university  environment,  and  especially  to  univer¬ 
sity  methods  of  instruction.  In  addition  to  these  general  dis¬ 
cussions  adapted  to  the  entire  Freshman  group,  individual 
conferences  were  held  wherein  those  students  who  found  them¬ 
selves  in  academic  difficulties  were  given  advice  adapted  to  their 
specific  problems.  In  this  analysis  of  academic  difficulties  the 
habits  of  the  student  were  carefully  studied  and  the  psychologist 
pointed  out  erroneous  and  uneconomical  methods  of  study  and 
gave  specific  directions  for  the  formation  of  more  efficient  habits 
of  mental  application.  As  may  be  expected  the  kinds  of  advice 
required  were  of  great  variety  ranging  from  suggestions  embody¬ 
ing  simple  methods  of  memorizing,  to  the  arrangement  of  an 
entire  daily  schedule. 

In  these  individual  conferences  it  may  easily  be  seen  that  the 
psychological  examination  records  are  of  great  service.  For 
example,  if  a  student  is  found  to  have  developed  more  effective 
methods  of  immediate  reproduction  than  methods  of  deferred 
reproduction  his  reviews  may  be  arranged  accordingly.  Fur¬ 
thermore,  the  tests  seem  to  give  some  notion  as  to  the  amount  of 
work  a  student  is  capable  of  carrying  advantageously — all  in 
terms  of  comparison  with  the  average  performance  of  his  group. 
The  tests  may  thus  be  helpful  in  avoiding  the  overloading  of 
slower  students  and  in  spurring  on  the  more  able  but  lazy  students. 

The  handling  of  students  under  this  regime  of  personal  super¬ 
vision  might  easily  degenerate  into  charlatanism  especially  in 
view  of  the  preliminary  stage  of  development  which  psychological 
consultations  enjoy  at  the  present  time.  In  order  to  guard  against 
this  the  impression  was  conveyed  that  the  psychological  examina¬ 
tions  simply  reflected  mental  condition  as  it  existed  at  the  time 
the  examination  was  made;  that  the  tests  were  not  perfect 
measures  of  innate  mental  capacity;  that  they  were  of  ser¬ 
vice  mainly  in  revealing  the  methods  of  mental  application 
which  had  been  developed  in  the  preceding  environment.  As¬ 
surances  were  given  that  none  of  the  measures  were  absolute, 
but  that  all  were  relative  to  the  group  of  students  as  a 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  63 


whole;  that  relief  from  an  unfavorable  situation  might  be 
expected  to  take  the  form  of  development  of  more  efficient 
habits  of  mental  application — an  aim  within  the  reach  of  all, 
and  finally,  that  the  Freshman  year  was  the  most  advantageous 
period  for  the  formation  of  these  habits.  The  results  of  these 
conferences  can  obviously  not  be  measured,  but  the  students 
seemed  to  find  them  helpful,  and  in  view  of  the  impressibility  of 
Freshmen  it  is  probable  that  these  methods  served  to  impress 
upon  the  students  the  importance  of  the  first  year  of  college  life 
more  emphatically  than  could  be  done  if  they  were  left  to  learn 
in  a  hap-hazard  manner. 

Conferences  on  study  methods  are  very  expensive  in  time, 
and  require  the  exercise  of  considerable  psychological  insight. 
The  light  that  is  thrown  upon  Freshman  difficulties,  however, 
gives  ample  justification  for  their  adoption.  Some  of  the  atro¬ 
cious  methods  of  study  revealed  in  such  conferences  would  open 
the  eyes  of  administrators  to  the  fact  that  an  enormous  waste 
occurs  in  the  education  of  college  students  and  that  much  pre¬ 
cious  energy  is  misapplied.  The  psychological  fallacies  disclosed 
emphasize  the  need  of  having  a  consulting  psychologist  at  the 
disposal  of  every  college  student.  The  possibilities  of  training  for 
study  have  never  been  demonstrated  but  it  is  safe  to  predict  that 
the  education  of  the  future  will  adopt  it  as  one  of  its  salient 
features.  In  such  event  psychological  tests  will  constitute  a 
necessary  part  of  the  machinery.  It  is  now  apparent  that  each 
part  of  the  system  herein  described  is  dependent  upon  every 
other  part. 

One  gratifying  result  of  the  system  as  operated  for  the  past 
two  years  was  the  effect  upon  the  attitude  of  the  students.  They 
welcomed  the  attempt  to  measure  their  mental  capacity,  seeing 
in  it  an  expression  of  the  desire  to  be  of  service,  which  the  Col¬ 
lege  of  Commerce  and  Administration  has  steadily  manifested, 
and  they  responded  readily.  The  disciplinary  value  of  the  tests 
became  evident  in  dealing  with  individuals  who  were  sus¬ 
pected  of  wilfully  slighting  university  work.  Examination 
of  their  environmental  conditions  revealed  nothing  that  could 
explain  their  academic  delinquencies.  When  the  records  in  the 


64 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


psychological  examinations  showed  them  to  rank  on  the  average 
or  above  in  the  mental  traits  tested,  the  administrative  officer  felt 
justified  in  charging  them  with  lack  of  application,  and  in  the 
face  of  the  objective  evidence  of  the  tests  the  students  admitted 
the  charge  to  be  just.  After  the  exposure  of  one  or  two  such 
cases,  careless  students  tend  to  be  less  secure  in  their  excuses 
for  poor  college  work  on  the  grounds  of  lack  of  ability.  On  the 
whole  a  very  desirable  frankness  has  been  engendered  between 
the  students  and  the  administrative  office  since  the  adoption  of 
the  methods  herein  described. 

One  unique  function  served  by  these  records  remains  to 
be  mentioned.  Owing  to  the  objectivity  of  this  kind  of 
measure,  the  rulings  of  the  university  may  now  be  based 
on  quite  tangible  evidence  and  in  dealing  with  obstreperous 
parents,  such  an  objective  record  as  that  from  a  psychological 
examination  is  very  effective  in  supporting  the  position  taken 
by  the  university,  especially  when  it  is  accompanied  by  other 
measures,  all  of  which  point  to  the  same  decision. 

The  psychological  records  have  been  prepared  for  143  students 
during  the  past  two  years  and  it  is  impossible  to  enumerate  all 
the  uses  to  which  they  have  been  put.  Probably  the  greatest 
utility  has  centered  around  the  delinquents.  The  question  that 
most  often  perplexes  the  educator  is  “Why  does  this  student  fail”  ? 
To  answer  this  question  it  is  necessary  to  utilize  all  the  facts  that 
can  be  secured,  and  the  results  of  psychological  examinations, 
when  technique  is  suitably  developed,  will  constitute  a  vital  part 
of  this  information.  A  few  typical  cases  will  be  described  show¬ 
ing  how  the  tests  are  used  in  conjunction  with  other  data  of  a 
social  and  economic  nature. 


Case  A 

This  student  came  to  the  university  with  high  recommenda¬ 
tions  and  proceeded  on  the  whole  to  justify  them,  making  an 
exceptionally  good  record  during  his  Freshman  year.  Of  the 
forty  students  in  the  experimental  group  he  ranked  fourth  in 
academic  standing  and  third  in  the  psychological  tests.  In  his 
Sophomore  year,  however,  his  academic  record  was  considerably 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  65 

poorer.  From  all  the  evidence  it  appeared  that  he  was  working 
just  as  earnestly  as  during  the  preceding  year.  He  had  joined  a 
fraternity  but  its  influence  was  not  derogatory  so  far  as  could 
be  determined.  A  psychological  reason  for  the  inferior  quality 
of  his  Sophomore  work  was  suggested  by  an  analysis  of  his 
psychological  record  and  reports  from  his  instructors.  The 
analysis  showed  that  so  long  as  this  student  was  studying  subjects 
requiring  the  exercise  of  rote  memory  he  encountered  no  difficulty 
for  in  this  respect  he  possessed  great  ability.  Freshman  subjects 
favor  this  ability  but  in  Sophomore  subjects  the  student  is  en¬ 
couraged  to  place  less  and  less  reliance  upon  it  and  to  give  more 
prominence  to  selective  thinking.  When  this  student  was  plunged 
into  such  conditions  he  found  himself  singularly  inefficient.  In¬ 
structors  attributed  his  low  grades  to  a  lack  of  ability  to  carry 
out  lines  of  thought  involving  selective  thinking;  the  student  re¬ 
marked  upon  the  same  difficulty.  All  the  evidence  gave  a  rea¬ 
sonable  hypothesis  for  the  explanation  of  the  discrepancy  be¬ 
tween  the  work  of  the  two  years.  Special  attention  is  being 
given  to  the  development  of  the  phase  in  which  he  is  deflcient. 

Case  B 

This  young  lady  came  to  the  university  with  high  recommen¬ 
dations  and  quite  a  fund  of  practical  experience.  All  reports 
showed  her  to  possess  an  exceptionally  high  grade  of  mental 
ability,  and  in  the  psychological  tests  she  ranked  first  by  a  very 
high  margin.  In  academic  work,  however,  it  was  found  that  at  the 
end  of  her  Freshman  year  she  ranked  eleventh  in  the  list  of  forty. 
Examination  of  this  student  from  the  all-round  view  afforded  by 
the  system  of  administration  in  operation  showed  that  she  was 
obliged  to  earn  her  own  living  and  that  she  had  been  spending 
on  the  average  five  and  six  hours  a  day  in  outside  work.  During 
one  quarter  she  spent  forty-eight  hours  a  week  in  outside  work 
(though  part  of  it  was  light),  and  carried  regular  university 
work  (fifteen  hours).  In  addition  to  this  she  devoted  some  time 
to  student  organizations.  In  this  case  the  tests  together  with  the 
other  machinery  of  the  system  gave  the  basis  for  a  more  exact 


66 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITS  ON 


estimate  of  ability  than  could  be  secured  by  observation  of  class¬ 
room  work. 

Case  C 

This  young  lady  ranked  last  in  the  tests  and  thirtieth  in  aca¬ 
demic  standing  in  the  group  of  forty.  Her  university  instructors 
reported  her  lacking  in  mental  power.  At  the  end  of  the  Fresh¬ 
man  year  she  stood  two  points  below  the  minimum  standard  set 
by  the  university  and  undertook  the  Sophomore  work  on  a  de¬ 
cidedly  probationary  basis.  Her  efforts  were  quite  beyond  re¬ 
proach  so  far  as  earnestness  of  purpose  and  intensity  of  effort 
were  concerned.  Social  and  economic  conditions  were  favorable 
to  good  work.  The  conclusion  seemed  forced  that  the  difficulty 
was  simply  inaptitude  for  study.  The  story  told  by  the  psycho¬ 
logical  test  was  corroborated  by  all  other  evidence  procurable 
and  her  withdrawal  from  the  university  seemed  eminently 
justified. 

Case  D 

This  young  man  appeared  from  his  recommendations  to  have 
distinctly  more  than  average  ability.  In  the  psychological  tests 
he  ranked  14.5  among  forty  individuals.  In  academic  record, 
however,  he  ranked  thirty-fourth.  Investigation  along  the  lines 
of  the  office  routine  showed  that  he  was  concentrating  only  a 
small  fraction  of  his  attention  upon  academic  things.  He  was 
popular  among  his  fellows  and  participated  excessively  in  extra¬ 
curriculum  activities.  His  record  was  gogd  enough  to  meet  the 
minimum  requirements  of  the  university  but  it  was  decided  to 
bring  pressure  upon  him  in  accordance  with  the  policy  to  demand 
from  every  one  according  to  his  ability.  The  hypothesis  was  that 
this  individual  had  more  ability  than  he  was  manifesting  in  uni¬ 
versity  work.  Accordingly  the  whole  matter  was  laid  before 
him  in  words  somewhat  as  follows ;  “All  the  evidence  that  can 
be  gathered  concerning  you  points  to  the  conclusion  that  you  are 
capable  of  doing  much  better  work  than  you  are  now  doing.  The 
question  now  at  issue  is  the  question  of  your  return  next 
year.  Frankly  it  seems  unwise  for  you  to  return  next  year.  If 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  67 


your  environment  here  is  such  as  to  lead  to  the  sort  of  record 
which  you  made  last  year  it  would  seem  wise  to  change  the  en¬ 
vironment.  If  after  thinking  the  matter  over,  however,  you 
feel  that  you  wish  to  return  to  the  institution,  it  can  only  be  on  a 
probationary  basis  with  the  definite  understanding  that  you  will 
not  be  eligible  for  participation  in  outside  activities  and  that  your 
connection  with  the  university  may  be  severed  at  any  time  your 
work  proves  unsatisfactory.  For  an  entire  quarter  nothing  short 
of  seven  grade-points  for  three  majors  taken  will  be  accepted  as 
satisfactory.” 

The  student  decided  to  return  in  the  autumn  under  the  above 
conditions.  Under  the  new  regime  he  secured  ten  grade-points 
and  in  the  winter  quarter,  eight  more,  with  universal  reports  of 
improvement.  The  psychological  tests  were  a  powerful  argu¬ 
ment  with  this  young  man  in  convincing  him  of  his  own  powers 
and  of  the  desire  of  the  university  to  draw  out  all  the  possibilities 
within  him. 


Case  E 

This  student  entered  the  university  on  representations  from 
teachers  and  others  that  he  was  at  least  of  average  ability.  In 
the  psychological  tests,  however,  he  ranked  thirty-ninth  out  of 
forty.  Instructors  in  the  university  made  discouraging  reports 
as  to  his  mental  ability.  In  the  effort  to  give  him  a  better  chance 
his  work  was  cut  down  from  fifteen  hours  to  ten  hours  a  week, 
still  he  made  only  a  grade  of  C  (75)  in  the  two  remaining 
courses.  All  the  evidence  showed  that  he  was  working  hard, 
therefore  he  was  permitted  to  continue  in  the  university  on  a 
probationary  basis.  He  remained  throughout  the  year  without 
improvement  and  inasmuch  as  the  Sophomore  work  promised  to 
be  even  more  taxing  on  his  powers  he  was  advised  not  to  return. 
Thus  the  hypothesis  furnished  by  the  psychological  test  record 
was  confirmed  by  a  year  of  university  work. 

Case  F 

This  student  entered  the  university  with  statements  from 
high-school  instructors  which  indicated  that  he  was  about  an 


68 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


average  student  with  good  fundamental  moral  qualities.  The 
record  he  made  in  the  psychological  tests  ranked  him  thirty- 
eighth  in  the  list  of  forty  students.  In  his  first  quarter  of  univer¬ 
sity  work  he  secured  but  three  grade-points  and  was  placed  on 
probation.  The  work  of  the  next  two  quarters  resulted  in  a 
total  of  only  eleven  grade-points  so  he  was  asked  to  withdraw. 
The  parents  came  to  the  office  in  a  rather  belligerent  frame  of 
mind  and  asked  on  what  ground  the  university  took  its  stand. 
The  information  that  had  been  gathered  was  laid  before  them 
and  the  parents  were  considerably  enlightened  when  shown  this 
many-sided  view  of  their  son.  They  departed  with  a  better  un¬ 
derstanding  of  the  youth  and  with  confidence  in  the  good  inten¬ 
tions  of  the  university. 

The  foregoing  typical  cases  are  representative  of  a  great 
variety  of  situations  in  which  the  tests  were  clearly  serviceable 
in  adjusting  students  to  their  work  and  in  determining  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  the  university  toward  them.  It  is  impossible  in  such  brief 
statements  to  show  the  extent  to  which  the  psychological  records 
were  of  service.  Especially  is  this  true  when  as  in  this  report, 
the  effort  is  made  to  express  everything  with  extreme  modera¬ 
tion.  Only  one  accustomed  to  deal  with  the  perplexities  of  uni¬ 
versity  administration  can  fully  appreciate  the  value  of  every 
bit  of  information  about  a  student. 

It  is  now  time  to  summarize  the  results  of  this  two  years’  trial 
of  psychological  tests  as  instruments  for  university  administra¬ 
tion.  A  series  of  sixteen  tests  has  been  employed,  carefully 
chosen  in  the  light  of  past  experience  in  this  field  so  as  to  give 
objective  measures  of  mental  ability.  Care  was  taken  to  select 
tests  that  were  well  adapted  on  the  symptomatic  side  as  well  as 
from  the  standpoint  of  economy  and  efficiency;  an  arrangement 
was  provided  for  uniting  the  various  results  of  the  tests  into  a  re¬ 
sultant  value  which  would  be  a  Cjuantitative  expression  of  the 
standing  of  an  individual.  The  particular  tests  employed  in  this 
preliminary  study  lent  themselves  fairly  satisfactorily  to  the 
needs  of  the  situation.  When  gauged  by  the  methods  ordinarily 
applied  to  such  tests  they  show  a  fair  degree  of  conformity  to 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  69 


standards  of  efficiency.  The  distribution  of  the  measures  of  the 
separate  tests  follow  for  the  most  part  the  normal  curve  of  dis¬ 
tribution,  likewise  the  distribution  of  measures  in  the  combined 
scores.  The  results  of  the  tests  correlate  positively  with  college 
grades  and  to  a  closer  degree,  with  estimated  intelligence.  By 
means  of  the  tests  the  improvement  in  certain  mental  functions 
during  one  year  of  university  training  was  measured.  Lastly  this 
psychological  measure  has  been  found  useful  in  furnishing 
hypotheses  regarding  perplexing  cases  of  students,  which  when 
acted  upon  provided  happy  solutions  in  many  cases. 

The  thesis  upheld  here  does  not  advocate  the  universal  adop¬ 
tion  of  the  particular  tests  in  this  series.  Their  imperfections  are 
numerous  and  have  been  freely  pointed  out.  The  norms  of  per¬ 
formance  here  presented  do  not  aspire  to  rank  as  standardized 
measures.  With  even  a  perfect  system  of  tests  anything  of  that 
nature  would  be  unseemly  in  view  of  the  limited  number  of 
students  tested.  The  figures  are  offered  for  the  sake  of  their 
suggestive  value  and  in  the  hope  that  efforts  toward  refinement  of 
method  will  be  stimulated.  The  production  of  a  highly  developed 
system  of  psychological  examinations  for  the  scientific  study  of 
the  college  student  will  require  long  and  painstaking  research  on 
the  part  of  many  investigators.  By  way  of  general  remark  it 
might  be  suggested  that  the  tests  of  the  future  should  be  ar¬ 
ranged  with  reference  to  the  capacities  of  college  students.  The 
extensive  use  of  mental  tests  with  school  children  has  resulted  in 
a  tendency  toward  the  use  of  material  and  form  better  adapted 
to  children  than  to  adults.  Other  needs  of  a  more  specific  nature 
have  been  pointed  out  throughout  the  text. 

Whatever  be  the  nature  of  the  psychological  tests  that  will  be 
evolved  in  the  future  for  use  in  this  field,  it  is  the  method  of 
utilizing  them  that  is  under  consideration  here.  The  function  of 
psychological  tests  as  here  advocated  is  to  furnish  grounds  for 
hypotheses  regarding  individual  students  and  to  supplement  and 
give  corroboration  to  other  evidence  of  an  interpretative  nature. 
Such  a  role  does  not  include  predictive  powers.  It  demands  that 
the  tests  be  regarded  merely  as  instruments  for  one  kind  of 
measurement.  In  addition,  it  demands  that  the  student  be  scien- 


70 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


tifically  measured  in  a  variety  of  other  relationships — physiolog¬ 
ical,  academic,  social  and  economic.  Regarding  the  nature  of 
the  psychological  measurement  thus  achieved,  attention  is  called 
to  the  fact  that  this  is  not  even  defined.  Emphatically  it  is  not 
an  absolute  measure  of  mental  ability.  It  is  only  relative — rela¬ 
tive  to  the  members  of  the  college  group.  The  present  series  does 
not  even  lay  claim  to  completeness  in  comprehending  the  impor¬ 
tant  phases  of  mental  ability,  though  with  the  advances  of  future 
research  such  a  goal  may  be  approximated. 

Such  an  aim  for  the  application  of  psychological  tests  is  clearly 
within  the  realm  of  possibility  and  in  accord  with  the  principles 
of  scientific  method.  To  one  who  has  witnessed  the  application 
of  these  methods  to  the  education  of  a  group  of  able  and  willing 
young  men  and  women  for  two  years,  it  is  evident  that  higher 
education  may  look  with  increasing  hopes  to  psychological 
laboratories. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Vocational  Guidance  and  the  College  Student 

The  prevailing  interest  in  vocational  guidance  and  especially 
in  the  application  of  psychological  methods  to  the  problem  makes 
it  desirable  that  the  methods  hereinbefore  described  be  examined 
as  to  their  vocational  significance. 

Since  President  Eliot’s^®  notable  appeal  for  the  maintenance  of 
a  life-work  ideal  before  the  college  student,  educators  have  be¬ 
gun  to  realize  that  much  higher  education  misses  point  because 
of  insufficient  emphasis  upon  vocational  ideals.  Especially  is  the 
liberal  arts  course  charged  with  ineffectiveness  because  it  does 
not  relate  itself  to  the  future  life-work.  Probably  one  cogent 
reason  for  this  alleged  ineffectiveness  is  that  so  many  students 
taking  the  so-called  “academic  course”  have  no  vocational  aims. 
Under  such  circumstances  the  training  given  by  the  college  must 
necessarily  be  that  of  a  purely  formal  nature.  Not  knowing  what 
are  to  be  the  conditions  surrounding  the  individual  in  the  future, 
the  college  must  necessarily  forbear  relating  its  service  to  his 
life-work. 

Granting  that  the  college  feels  its  obligation  to  consider  the 
student  in  relation  to  his  life-work  it  is  apparent  that  it  must 
modify  the  nature  of  its  ministrations  somewhat.  If  the  student 
comes  to  the  college  unidentified  with  any  life-work  ideals  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  institution  to  help  him  secure  a  vision,  or  to  use 
a  morp  popular  term,  to  give  him  vocational  guidance.  It 
will  be  shown  before  the  conclusion  of  this  discussion  that  true 
vocational  guidance  means  more  than  assistance  in  choosing  an 
occupation;  especially  does  the  guidance  demand  of  the  college 
and  university  transcend  this  narrow  interpretation  of  the  term. 
Nevertheless,  for  immediate  purposes  this  narrower  standpoint 
will  be  taken  and  it  will  be  seen  that  the  college  student  is  sadly 
in  need  of  vocational  guidance. 

35  Charles  W.  Eliot,  The  Value  during  Education  of  the  Life  Career 
Motive,  Proceedings  of  the  Nat.  Educ.  Assn.  1910.  Pp.  133-141. 


72 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


A  few  statistics^®  will  show  in  some  measure  the  conditions  that 
exist  in  representative  colleges  and  universities.  An  investiga¬ 
tion  was  made  by  Dean  L.  C.  Marshall  among  744  undergradu¬ 
ates  at  the  University  of  Chicago  and  503  undergraduates  at 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University  which  showed  that  of  the  men  studied 
at  the  former  institution,  74.6  had  reached  definite  decisions  and 
of  those  at  the  latter  institution,  65.1.  Of  the  women,  the  corres¬ 
ponding  percentages  were  64.6  at  Chicago  and  61.0  at  Ohio  Wes¬ 
leyan.  In  an  inquiry  made  by  Dean  Frederick  P.  Keppel  of 
Columbia  College  among  800  graduates  of  Dartmouth  and  Colum¬ 
bia  College  for  the  years  1908-09-10,  519  replied,  and  of  this 
number  approximately  14  percent  had  not  made  a  vocational 
decision  at  time  of  graduation.  Of  the  493  who  had  decided  at 
time  of  the  inquiry,  216  or  43.8  percent  had  decided  before  enter¬ 
ing  college  and  had  not  changed  their  minds  since.  Though 
figures  supporting  the  statement  are  not  given,  it  is  hardly  likely 
that  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  members  of  these  two  groups 
had  definitely  decided  upon  a  vocation  before  entering  college. 

A  similar  investigation  was  made  among  students  in  the  Col¬ 
lege  of  Science,  Literature  and  Arts  at  the  University  of  Minne¬ 
sota  which  showed  that  90  percent  of  the  students  had  chosen  a 
vocation  at  the  time  the  inquiry  was  made — during  the  year 
1911-12.  Closer  inspection  of  the  90  percent  that  had  decided 
upon  vocations  shows  that  67  per  cent  of  them  had  decided  while 
in  high  school  or  before.  The  other  third  had  presumably  de¬ 
cided  at  entrance  to  the  university.  This  shows  that  in  this 
particular  group  at  least,  more  than  a  third  of  the  students 
needed  the  direct  aid  of  a  vocational  counselor  at  time  of  entrance 
to  the  university. 

Even  without  these  significant  figures,  probably  most  educa¬ 
tors  will  agree  that  one-third  of  the  college  students  enter  college 
without  definite  vocational  aims  and  unquestionably  need  direct 
vocational  advice — advice  which  the  institutions  for  higher  educa¬ 
tion  are  not  giving.  Most  of  these  students  are  considering 
various  vocations  in  a  perplexed  state  of  mind.  This  was 

36  These  statistics  are  not  available  in  published  dorm  except  those  gath¬ 
ered  by  Dean  Keppel  which  appeared  in  Educ.  Rev.  Vol.  40,  pp.  433-9. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  73 


brought  out  in  the  studies  at  The  University  of  Chicago  and 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University.  Of  the  men  who  had  not  yet 
reached  decisions,  88.1  percent  at  the  former  institution  and 
78.4  at  the  latter  institution,  were  considering  definite  vocations. 
Stated  in  another  way,  at  the  two  institutions,  only  3.0  percent 
and  7.5  percent  respectively  of  the  men  neither  had  chosen  nor 
were  definitely  considering  vocations.  This  shows  that  the  stu¬ 
dents  are  facing  the  problem  and  are  in  need  of  assistance  in 
solving  it. 

But  the  need  of  this  one  third  does  not  constitute  the  only  justi¬ 
fication  for  the  establishment  of  organized  vocational  guidance 
in  institutions  for  higher  learning.  To  confine  the  process  thus 
is  to  fail  in  interpreting  its  real  meaning  and  the  true  scope  of 
its  need.  Close  inquiry  would  reveal  that  many  of  those  students 
who  have  ostensibly  chosen  a  life-work  have  based  their  decisions 
upon  very  slight  knowledge  either  about  the  task  or  their  own 
aptitude  for  it.  Moreover  with  many  of  them  the  determination 
is  by  no  means  final.  A  very  little  questioning  will  bring  out 
their  own  indecision  about  the  matter.  Nor  is  this  unsettled 
state  of  mind  or  this  tentativeness  of  choice  a  thing  to  be  re¬ 
gretted.  On  the  contrary  it  is  a  condition  to  be  expected.  As 
knowledge  and  experience  increase  it  is  natural  and  healthful  that 
an  individual  should  enlarge  his  vision  and  get  new  aspirations. 
However,  in  order  to  allow  for  these  natural  evolutions,  the 
college  should  provide  some  means  for  guiding  these  aspirations. 
Granting  that  these  two  classes  of  students  would  be  benefited  by 
systematic  vocational  advice,  one  can  see  that  even  the  remaining 
students  who  have  hypothetically  chosen  vocations  wisely  and 
finally,  need  the  services  of  a  vocational  counselor.  With  them, 
the  advice  will  be  directed  toward  a  proper  use  of  the  curriculum, 
and  this  suggests  the  form  which  vocational  guidance  should  as¬ 
sume  in  the  college — the  form  of  educational  guidance.  A  proper 
introduction  to  the  curriculum  in  itself  constitutes  real  vocational 
guidance,  for  it  will  be  based  primarily  upon  the  student’s  needs 
and  capacities.  It  will  call  out  all  his  resources  and  will  seek 
compensations  for  his  shortcomings. 

Efficient  guidance  of  students  through  college  and  university 


74 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


requires  first  of  all  a  flexible  curriculum.  .  This  does  not  mean 
a  wide-open  system  of  electives;  any  abuse  of  that  nature  would 
be  avoided  by  the  second  requirement  that  the  course  of  every 
student  be  determined  by  an  educational  expert.  The  ordinary 
college  student  is  incapable  of  merely  choosing  his  own  course. 
It  must  be  done  for  him.  There  must  be  certain  principles  gov¬ 
erning  this  selection  of  courses;  a  prefunctory  signing  of  admis¬ 
sion  cards  is  by  no  means  educational  guidance.  The  selection 
must  be  made  by  one  who  has  at  his  disposal  a  vast  amount  of 
information  about  the  student.  Information  must  be  gathered 
that  will  show  the  capacities,  the  limitations  and  the  past  and 
present  environment  of  the  student,  all  of  which  must  be  re¬ 
lated  to  the  curriculum.  This  involves,  as  is  readily  seen,  the 
kind  of  study  described  in  the  preceding  chapters — the  study  that 
considers  the  student  in  all  his  relationships  before  presuming  to 
shape  his  future. 

Such  a  study  of  the  individual  conforms  to  the  practices  that 
should  characterize  true  vocational  guidance.  The  individual 
must  be  studied  from  all  aspects — first  physiologically.  This 
should  not  stop  with  an  examination  of  the  single  individual.  His 
descent  should  be  inquired  into.  Methods  are  being  evolved  in 
biological  research  for  the  prosecution  of  such  inquiries  and 
there  is  probability  that  considerable  light  may  be  thrown  upon 
the  powers  of  an  individual  from  a  study  of  his  heredity.  Psy¬ 
chological  considerations  come  next,  and  it  is  around  this  phase 
of  vocational  guidance  that  some  of  the  more  picturesque  and 
misleading  notions  cluster.  Some  of  these  will  be  discussed 
shortly.  The  social  and  economic  status  of  the  individual  next 
demand  careful  consideration,  and  lastly,  his  interests  should 
be  examined.  These  lines  of  inquiry  seem  to  comprehend  the 
different  factors  which,  combined,  enter  into  the  rationale  of 
vocational  guidance.  It  is  possible  that  future  developments  will 
disclose  other  important  relationships.  In  a  concept  that  is  so 
vaguely  defined,  and  in  a  social  order  so  volatile  as  the  present,  it 
is  difficult  to  foresee  all  the  complications  that  may  arise.  The 
thing  to  remember,  however,  is  that  vocational  adjustment  is 
never  a  matter  for  settlement  along  any  one  line. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  75 


Plans  along  the  lines  just  indicated  are  being  discussed  with 
more  or  less  clearness  throughout  the  country  and  interest  in  the 
new  ideal  of  vocational  guidance  is  being  rapidly  aroused.  It 
is  forcing  itself  upon  the  attention  of  various  classes  of  society — 
upon  a  misfitted  and  dissatisfied  public  who  sees  in  it  a  possible 
solution  of  its  individual  vocational  problems,  upon  industry 
which  sees  in  it  possible  amelioration  of  numerous  economic  ills, 
and  upon  education  which  sees  in  it  a  means  for  the  fulfilment 
of  its  highest  responsibility,  the  fitting  of  the  individual  to  cope 
with  his  environment. 

As  already  indicated  the  ideas  held  regarding  vocational  guid¬ 
ance  are  quite  various.  People  seem  to  be  vaguely  groping  to¬ 
ward  a  working  notion  about  it.  On  some  points  the  way  is  clear. 
All  see  that  vocational  guidance  has  an  informative  function, 
that  it  requires  the  compilation  of  a  large  number  of  facts  about 
occupations  so  that  vocations  may  be  chosen  intelligent.  Re¬ 
garding  the  analysis  of  the  individual,  however,  there  is  less 
clarity.  The  views  that  are  held  are  extremely  vague,  and  much 
is  held  that  is  erroneous.  The  fallacious  assumptions  involved 
should  be  pointed  out  if  progress  is  to  be  made. 

Perhaps  the  most  serious  error  in  the  current  notion  of  voca¬ 
tional  guidance  is  indicated  by  the  assumption  that  every  indi¬ 
vidual  is  either  “round”  or  “square” ;  that  each  individual  is  un¬ 
alterably  fitted  for  one  kind  of  work  but  not  fitted  for  any  other 
kind.  This  mischievous  doctrine  must  be  overthrown  before 
advance  can  be  made  in  this  field.  Its  refutation  lies  in  the  simple 
fact  that  many  people  can  be  trained  to  do  several  things  equally 
well.  In  any  group  of  individuals  whose  abilities  are  arranged 
according  to  the  normal  curve  of  distribution  there  are  a  few  per¬ 
sons  at  the  upper  extreme  who  fall  readily  into  the  class  of  genius, 
and  the  line  of  their  success  is  quite  plainly  indicated.  There  are 
a  correspondingly  small  number  of  persons  at  the  lower  extreme 
whose  deficiencies  are  so  apparent  that  their  vocational  possi¬ 
bilities  are  likewise  clearly  limited.  Between  these  extremes, 
however,  are  a  large  number — approximately  50% — who  could 
be  trained  to  do  several  things  equally  well.  This  makes  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  an  individual  can  rightly  hold  but  one 
kind  of  position  in  the  world  of  work. 


76 


HARRY  DEXTER  KIT  SON 


A  second  misunderstanding  concerns  the  use  of  psychological 
tests  in  vocational  guidance.^'^  In  the  popular  mind  this  involves 
putting  a  person  through  a  prescribed  set  of  tests  at  perhaps  one 
hour’s  sitting,  and  at  the  end  concluding,  “You  should  be  a  civil 
engineer,”  or  something  equally  definite.  In  order  to  see  the 
difficulties  involved  in  such  an  expectation,  some  of  the  difficulties 
of  all  measurement  should  be  pointed  out.  In  the  first  place  any 
single  measurement  must  take  into  account  the  fact  that  power 
of  achievement  varies  from  day  to  day  according  to  changes 
in  weather,  physiological  and  emotional  conditions.  This  vitiates 
somewhat  the  reliability  of  single  measurements,  and  any  system 
of  vocational  tests  that  claims  validity  must  make  allowance  for 
it.  Furthermore,  a  single  measurement  will  not  show  suscepti¬ 
bility  to  improvement.  It  cannot  be  ascertained  from  the  results 
of  a  single  test,  to  what  extent  an  individual  is  capable  of  profit¬ 
ing  by  practice.  Not  only  does  the  individual  improve  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  first  attainments  in  a  task,  but  also  the  degrees 
of  improvability  vary  among  individuals,  and  the  arrangement  of 
a  preliminary  series  of  measures  does  not  bear  a  constant  ratio 
to  measures  in  successive  trials.  This  is  evidenced  in  widely 
different  types  of  activity  from  simple  processes  to  complex 
acts  such  as  type- writing.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  any  system  of 
vocational  tests  that  is  to  be  reliable  must  guard  against  errors 
due  to  chance  sampling  and  must  provide  for  susceptibility  to 
improvement.  These  objections  do  not  constitute  an  insurmount¬ 
able  obstacle,  since  with  sufficient  research,  it  may  be  possible  to 
devise  a  method  whereby  these  factors  may  be  weighted.  Never¬ 
theless  they  should  be  kept  in  mind  as  possible  sources  of  error, 
and  they  emphasize  the  possibility  that  the  vocational  tests  of 
the  future  may  be  more  elaborate  than  at  present  supposed. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  it  is  apparent  that  if  progress  is  to 
be  made  in  vocational  guidance  it  will  be  necessary  to  rid  the 
mind  of  a  belief  in  types,  such  as  executive  type,  etc.  The 
treacherousness  of  the  type  as  a  scientific  concept  has  been  re¬ 
peatedly  demonstrated  by  experiment,  and  as  a  vocational  con- 

37  H.  D.  Kitson,  Psychological  Tests  in  Vocational  Guidance.  'School  Re¬ 
view,  March,  1916.  Pp.  207-14. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT 


cept  it  falls  down  completely  before  the  simple  circumstance  that 
many  persons  can  be  trained  to  do  several  things  ec[ually  well. 

It  is  frequently  advocated  that  interest  should  be  the  ultimate 
criterion  in  giving  vocational  advice.^®  Various  methods  have 
been  proposed  for  discovering  interests.  Questionnaires  have 
been  prepared  in  profusion,  and  various  methods  of  studying  ex¬ 
pressions  have  been  proposed  such  as  studying  involuntary  reac¬ 
tions  to  various  kinds  of  interesting  stimuli.  The  great  difficulty 
in  being  guided  by  interests  is  that  many  individuals  possess  a 
number  of  them,  often  of  equal  strength  and  of  a  conflicting 
nature.  Furthermore  they  vary  from  time  to  time,  especially 
during  adolescent  years.  These  individuals  constitute  the  most 
difficult  problem  for  vocational  guidance  and  they  can  receive 
little  help  from  a  doctrine  that  uses  interest  as  its  chief  criterion 
of  aptitude. 

The  foregoing  discussion  points  out  some  of  the  chief  diffi¬ 
culties  on  the  technical  side  that  becloud  the  current  notion  about 
vocational  guidance,  and  suggests  the  psychological  reasons  for 
its  rejection  or  at  least,  modification.  There  are  further  consid¬ 
erations  of  a  philosophical  import  that  demand  its  revision.  In 
the  first  place  it  maintains  implicitly  that  in  the  grand  cosmic 
scheme  there  is  but  one  task  that  can  be  satisfactorily  performed 
by  a  single  individual;  that  the  nature  of  this  task  is  prearranged 
by  the  constitution  of  his  psycho-physical  organism,  his  social 
and  economic  milieu,  etc.  While  this  doctrine  can  not  be  com¬ 
pletely  invalidated  on  logical  grounds,  it  is  at  least  seriously  open 
to  question  and  should  be  carefully  weighed  before  incorporating 
it  into  any  concept  so  momentous  as  that  of  vocational  guidance. 
According  to  this  doctrine,  the  failures  made  by  misfits  are  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  did  not  find  the  right  avenue  for  their  talents. 
It  implies  that  if  a  man  finds  his  niche,  success  is  assured;  his 
efforts  will  always  be  in  proportion  to  his  stimulus  and  he  is  a 
mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  fate.  This  doctrine,  while  embracing 
the  conception  of  a  beautifully  well-ordered  and  harmonious  uni¬ 
verse,  leaves  out  of  account  the  factor  of  personal  volition.  It 

38  H.  D.  Kitson,  Interest  as  a  Criterion  in  Vocational  Guidance.  Educ.  Rev. 
Xov.  1916,  pp.  349-56- 


78 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


tacitly  assumes  that  if  the  methods  of  science  be  sufficiently  re¬ 
fined  one  will  be  able  to  foretell  with  practical  certainty  the  des¬ 
tiny  of  an  individual.  Such  a  program  is  feasible  in  astronomy 
where  the  course  of  fixed  and  soulless  stars  is  concerned,  but  in 
the  realm  of  human  endeavor  it  is  not  likely  to  be  of  much  avail 
as  a  working  hypothesis.  There  is  a  further  consideration  that 
will  have  weight  with  all  except  those  who  are  inalienably  com¬ 
mitted  to  a  mechanistic  conception  of  the  universe.  The  current 
doctrine  fails  to  make  allowance  for  contingencies  beyond  the 
control  of  the  individual.  It  displays  a  cock-sureness  about  the 
future  that  is  not  warranted  by  the  course  of  human  experience. 
The  experience  of  every  one  will  show  occurrences  which,  even 
with  the  utmost  care,  could  not  have  been  provided  for  in  ad¬ 
vance.  Whether  one  attributes  these  to  Chance  or  to  the  ‘‘divin¬ 
ity  that  shapes  our  ends,”  they  are  a  part  of  the  universe  and 
must  be  reckoned  with.  The  glaring  fault  of  the  present  doc¬ 
trine  may  be  said  to  be  that  it  views  the  individual  and  society  as 
two  static  entities.  It  says,  “This  youth  should  be  a  civil  engi¬ 
neer,”  and  looks  upon  him  as  one  who  should  devote  his  entire 
life  to  that  profession.  Now  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  individuals, 
and  successful  ones,  too,  who  spend  their  lives  in  an  unchanged 
line  of  work  are  not  so  numerous  as  one  thinks.  The  individual 
constantly  changes.  He  develops  new  interests,  and  when  placed 
in  new  positions,  frequently  displays  talents  whose  presence  was 
previously  unsuspected.  Thus  the  civil  engineer  might  by  stress 
of  circumstances  develop  into  an  excellent  executive  and  lay 
aside  his  engineering  duties.  Still  another  person  might  reach 
that  same  executive  position  through  an  avenue  other  than  that 
of  the  engineer.  He  might  reach  it  through  the  sales  avenue. 
There  is  considerable  illumination  to  be  thrown  upon  these  prob¬ 
lems  by  applying  the  concept  of  evolution  to  the  vocational  devel- 
ment  of  individuals,  and  in  the  careers  of  successful  men  it  is 
quite  easy  to  mark  the  stages  of  that  evolutionary  process,  and 
to  note  how  each  change  took  advantage  of  the  experience  of 
former  stages.  But  to  suppose  that  science  could  foresee  the 
course  of  that  development  and  foretell  its  progress  exactly 
were  to  place  too  great  a  strain  upon  the  potentialities  of  scien¬ 
tific  method  and  upon  man’s  credulity. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  79 


Just  as  the  relations  of  the  individual  should  be  regarded  as 
dynamic  in  their  nature,  so  also  should  society  be  regarded  as 
dynamic.  The  kinds  of  work  which  the  world  requires  are  in 
constant  change.  Examples  abound.  For  example,  twenty  years 
ago  there  were  no  such  vocations  as  those  of  chauffer,  aviator, 
etc.  Twenty  years  hence  there  will  be  other  new  ones.  The  hide¬ 
bound  method  of  assigning  vocations  would  make  no  allowance 
for  these  developments,  and  hence  breaks  down. 

It  is  admitted  that  all  of  these  objectionable  doctrines  are 
not  explicitly  asserted  as  essential  parts  of  vocational  guidance 
as  it  is  advocated  by  many  persons,  nevertheless  it  is  apparent 
that  the  prevailing  opinion  is  surely  leaning  in  the  directions 
mentioned.  These  criticisms  are  offered  before  the  concept 
becomes  crystallized  in  the  hope  that  as  it  grows  it  will  develop 
along  healthy  lines  and  not  along  lines  that  will  bring  it  into  dis¬ 
credit.  In  attempting  to  derive  a  formula  that  will  stand  the 
test  of  logic  and  experience,  it  seems  necessary  to  regard  the 
service  of  vocational  guidance  as  chiefly  monitory  in  character. 
It  should  eschew  all  pretensions  to  predictive  power.  It  may 
properly  only  marshal  facts  and  show  to  the  individual  the  ten¬ 
dencies  within  himself.  Given  a  wealth  of  information  about 
occupations  and  accurate  measurements  of  the  individual  in  all 
his  phases,  one  can  only  say  at  most:  “If  you  enter  this  particu¬ 
lar  vocation  you  will  be  hampered  in  this  or  that  respect  and  you 
will  have  this  much  in  your  favor.  If  you  have  sufficient  deter¬ 
mination  you  may  rise  above  the  handicaps  and  attain  to  some 
degree  of  success  in  the  calling.  Science,  however,  cannot  place 
a  tag  upon  you  that  will  guarantee  a  safe  journey  over  the  road 
of  least  resistance  to  a  goal  of  gratified  ambition  and  unalloyed 
success.” 

Such  an  ideal  as  that  just  suggested,  while  not  possessing  the 
dramatic  possibilities  of  the  more  picturesque  “pigeon-hole” 
point  of  view,  nevertheless  seems  more  becoming  as  a  working 
hypothesis.  In  the  first  place  it  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  in¬ 
dividual  and  society  are  in  a  dynamic  state  of  interplay,  not 
static.  Second,  it  calls  for  nothing  not  within  the  range  of 
scientific  method.  It  is  quite  possible  to  conceive  of  a  technique 


8o 


HARRY  DEXTER  KITSON 


that  will  enable  one  to  give  pointed  advice  without  postulating 
any  mysterious  prescience.  One  who  follows  such  an  ideal  will 
be  free  from  the  suspicion  of  charlatanism  that  might  be  urged 
against  those  who  in  order  to  tickle  the  ears  of  a  credulous  pub¬ 
lic,  would  make  promises  beyond  the  power  of  science  to  fulfill. 
This  more  modest  ideal  is  also  free  from  the  errors  of  a  fatalistic 
philosophy.  It  postulates  no  hypothetical  “best  way.”  It  simply 
takes  facts  as  it  finds  them  and  draws  conclusions  based  on  facts 
alone.  One  is  forced  to  conclude  that  the  former  will  never  lead 
to  a  scientific  attitude,  while  the  latter  adheres  to  scientific 
method.  A  further  advantage  that  enhances  the  attractiveness 
of  this  monitory  type  of  vocational  guidance  is  that  it  relieves  one 
individual  from  responsibility  for  another’s  successes  or  failures. 
A  man  of  scientific  mind  revolts  from  the  task  of  issuing  ulti¬ 
mate  fiats  regarding  the  future  such  as  are  popularly  demanded. 
Advice  he  will  gladly  give.  Scientific  measurements  he  will  cheer¬ 
fully  make.  Interpretation  of  these  measures  is  his  bounden 
duty.  Further  than  this  he  can  not  go,  and  society  should  not 
ask  more. 

The  evidence  points  to  the  untenability  of  the  “pigeon-hole” 
theories  of  vocational  guidance  and  to  the  adoption  of  a  monitory 
theory.  The  relinquishment  of  the  more  pretentious  ideal  does 
not  signify,  however,  that  educators  should  lessen  their  zeal 
in  the  matter.  On  the  contrary  the  adoption  of  this  monitory 
conception  should  accelerate  the  progress  of  true  vocational 
guidance.  Society  does  not  possess  an  elaborate  technique  for 
probing  into  the  future  but  she  does  have  abundant  material  for 
applying  the  fundamental  principles  of  vocational  guidance  which 
consist  in  studying  the  individual  in  all  his  relationships.  The 
informative  function  of  vocational  guidance  can  be  partially 
performed  by  a  proper  utilization  of  census  reports.  Figures 
are  compiled  showing  the  distribution  of  different  kinds  of 
workers  throughout  the  country,  and  these  figures  may  be  re¬ 
lated  to  a  number  of  other  facts  of  distinct  vocational  sienifi- 
cance,  such  as  proportion  to  population,  productivity  of  soil, 
climatic  conditions,  rate  of  mortality,  scale  of  wages,  etc.  These 
statistics  are  available  and  only  await  their  application  to  take 
a  prominent  place  in  the  preparation  of  youth  for  vocations. 


THE  SCIENTIFIC  STUDY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  STUDENT  8i 


By  way  of  analysis  of  the  individual,  there  are  methods  availa¬ 
ble  that  might  render  excellent  service  if  properly  applied.  Every 
institution  that  addresses  itself  to  the  preparation  of  men  and 
women  for  life  may  take  some  steps  toward  vocational  guidance. 
Ofttimes  a  bit  of  kindly  advice  from  some  member  of  the  faculty 
who  is  not  afraid  to  tell  the  truth,  would  save  one  from  a  mis¬ 
step.  But  in  addition,  there  should  be  one  whose  duty  it  is  to 
secure  all  possible  information  about  the  student,  academic, 
psychological,  physiological,  social  and  economic.  On  the  basis 
of  this  many-sided  view,  many  strengths  and  weaknesses  will  be 
brought  out.  The  next  step  is  to  utilize  the  curriculum  for  the 
development  within  the  student  of  those  qualities  which  are 
needed  for  his  success.  Perhaps  the  college  curriculum  will  have 
to  be  seriously  modified  in  order  to  be  thus  used.  Indeed, 
it  is  very  likely  that  such  will  be  the  case.  Not  the  least  of 
the  beneficial  results  from  the  movement  of  vocational  guidance 
among  colleges  will  be  efforts  to  rationalize  the  curriculum  and 
link  it  up  more  completely  with  the  fieeds  of  society.  All  the 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  organized  vocational  guidance  can 
not  be  enumerated,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the 
educational  institutions  of  the  country  would  find  it  one  of  their 
most  powerful  agencies  for  the  development  of  the  individual  to 
his  highest  capacity,  and  for  the  utilization  of  his  powers  by 
society. 


